Thurman the turtle a good mentor to help kids want a cleaner planet

The book is about a turtle, Thurman. He gets mad because humans threw trash all over his sister Taylor’s wedding and hurt the environment.

He wants to try to stop the humans from hurting the environment.

Reading “Living Green” made me want to pick up trash outside so we don’t hurt people, animals or fish. We should try to stop throwing litter on the ground because it’s where the animals live and we don’t want to mess up their home.

Thurman begins to stop the humans from littering but ends up getting stuck because of the trash. School kids on a field trip rescue Thurman. Thurman is happy because he knows there’s hope for a cleaner world, thanks to the kids.

The lesson the school kids learn and help us learn is the four R’s – rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle. I liked that I learned something from the book.

After I read “Living Green,” I went to the store with my family and found there was trash in the parking lot. I picked it up for Thurman. Reading about Thurman’s adventure made me want to help the Earth.

Iliana’s dad, Greg Archuleta, a Journal staff writer: When I saw my daughter picking up trash after we had read the book a second time, I knew its message hit home. Introducing the concept of “carbon footprint” was a bit bold and required me to explain it to her.

That may have been the reason for the lack of immediate connection the first time we read the story. But when we read it for a second time, Iliana seemed more focused on the message and the lesson. Both showed how our actions, positive and negative, have an effect on our caring for the Earth – even without a full understanding of leaving a carbon footprint.

Showing those actions helped her recognize the importance that any human can have on a given situation.

Editor’s note: MJ Illustrations are Mike Jackson and Dan Goffredo, both of Santa Fe.

Iliana Archuleta will be a second-grader at Immanuel Lutheran School.