Do you have a vehicle-loving kid? My grandson loves all types of vehicles. It will be a long time before he can drive, but he’s already an enthusiast – pointing out cars and trucks, while revving up like a mini-engine when he climbs into his car seat. Every car trip is a new and thrilling adventure.
Many parents are discovering, or rediscovering, their love of cars too. Driving an electric vehicle is new and exciting because moving away from polluting gasoline and diesel vehicles is new and exciting. AND…EV’s are fun to drive!
3 Reasons Why Kids Should Learn About EV’s:
- The US consumes 25% of the world’s oil production, with passenger vehicles accounting for about 40%.
- Gasoline vehicles emit an estimated 400 metric tons of greenhouse gases each year, creating unhealthy air pollution.
- Vehicles that run solely on electricity produce no emissions. Zero pollution.
3 Fun Facts About EV’s
- EV’s are healthier for people and the environment. No tailpipe emissions.
- EV’s are low maintenance, and quiet.
- EV’s charge at home, and are cheaper than to run than gas-powered vehicles.
A Book to Teach Kids About EV’s!
Sparky’s Electrifying Tale is new book by Janelle London and Matthew Metz about two children, Tina and Rory, who care about climate change and air pollution, and would like to do something about it. But their family car burns gasoline.
When Rory gets a new pet hamster for his birthday, he wants to find a comfortable place for Sparky. He puts Sparky in the exhaust pipe of his dad’s car. His sister knows this is a bad idea, “The tailpipe is full of black soot and bad air…. It hurts lungs and brains.” Tina describes how gasoline is made from fossil fuels, “…starts as oil from dead plants and dinosaurs, squished in the soil.” She continues to explain that burning fossil fuels for gasoline to power our cars contributes to climate change and air pollution.
Sparky magically introduces the siblings to a new electric car, and their Dad loves it!
For children ages five to nine, this appealingly illustrated book with little clues about the children’s reverence for the environment (the planets bedspread, earth rug design) is charming. Parents and teachers will appreciate the sound climate science and informative electric vehicle information.
The authors, Janelle London and Matthew Metz, sum up the most important reason why Sparky’s Electrifying Tale is a must-read for children:
“The best place to start changing the culture is with children, who don’t yet have ingrained perceptions of gas-powered cars, who may already understand the very real threat that climate change poses to their lives, and who can influence their parents’ perceptions and actions. Children also participate in the use of gasoline as they are ferried around in daily life. Each time they get in their parents’ gas-powered car is an opportunity to think about gasoline and to talk to their parents about it.
We want to give kids the information they need to fight for a clean, healthy planet. It’s time for the truth about the harms of gasoline to become the new narrative. There should be dozens of storybooks about the problems with gasoline and the way it harms our air quality and climate…but we couldn’t find any! So, we wrote the first one, Sparky’s Electrifying Tale. We hope it’s the first of many.”
LEARN MORE ABOUT SPARKY’S ELECTRIFYING TALE HERE
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