"Millions of animals are injured or killed
for fashion every year. Some are raised on
farms and others are caught in the wild.
Their skins become sneakers, their wool
becomes sweaters and their feathers
become stuffing in winter coats. Some
people think we shouldn't wear animal
products at all. Others think it's okay as
long as the animals are not endangered or
mistreated. What do you think?"
In one of the newest books in the Orca Footprints series, Raina Delisle wants readers to consider fashion through education, and perhaps to learn a new way of making choices about the clothes they wear. Always conversational in style, the books in this series do a terrific job of providing information that teaches readers what they may not have known or considered.
There are four topical chapters: Dressed to Impress, Fashion's Footprint, Taking Action on Fashion, and Be a Fashion Hero. Those chapters are followed by acknowledgements a list of print, online, and film/television resources, a glossary, and an index. All are useful in helping readers navigate this fine example of informative fiction for middle grade readers.
It is a book for everyone. Teachers can read it with students, parents can read it with their children, middle graders can read it with each other. There is much to learn here, and it provides food for thought for so many different reasons. It shows each one of us how the choices we make when we buy clothes have a distinct effect on the people who work making those clothes, and on the environment.
One of the things I most admire about the Footprints series is that the books include the authors' personal stories and actions taken to create a better world for all. Information boxes called Fashion Fact are quick reminders of historical events having to do with fashion. Carefully captioned photographs are colorful and telling. Each section of the four chapters is highlighted to make for an easy return to what the reader finds enlightening and important. Throughout the text, attention is given to a Trendsetter - a person who has made a change concerning the expectations of what is fashionable. They stand out for not following what is trendy; they make their own fashion statement.
"When a Nova Scotia boy wore a pink shirt on his first day of high school in 2007, he was teased by several other students. Two twelfth-grade students, Travis Price and David Shepherd, decided to do something about it. First they bought 75 pink shirts. They they contacted their classmates through social media to tell them about their plan to turn the school into a sea of pink to show their support for the student. The next day Travis and David handed out the shirts and hundreds of students showed up in their own pink outfits. Not only did the students send a strong message to the kids who were being mean, but they also started an international anti-bullying movement that became known as Pink Shirt Day. Once a year kids wear pink shirts to school to show that they won't tolerate bullying. Today Pink Shirt Day is celebrated in more than 130 countries!"
If readers want to know about how they can help, have them research Second Hand September, Buy Nothing Day, and National Thrift Shop Day, to name a few, We can make a difference, each one of us.
Eye-opening and hopeful, this book could well lead students in middle years classrooms to come up with ideas of their own.
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