Hodge Podge Lodge by Priscilla Lamont

New Frontier Press, 2018. ISBN 9781925594287
(Age: 4+) Recommended. Themes: Rubbish. Recycling. Subtitled A rubbish story, Lamont tells her tale of recycling and the impact rubbish has on our environment through the use of a squad of animals and the unthinking owners of Hodge Podge Lodge, the Pigwigs. They are not careful about their rubbish: in fact they love to shop, and collect things, unwrap things, bring things home, be they unnecessary thing or things they really do not want. But everything comes wrapped. Sellotape, and wrapping paper, plastic filling, string and ribbon is all taken off and left where it lies.
But one day a wind springs up and whisks all the clutter away. The Pigwigs are happy, it is no longer their problem, but then the animals that live nearby are made only too aware of their rubbish. The owl has wrapping paper around its face and bumps into a tree, the duck has fishing line wrapped around its feet and cannot move, the deer has a toy on its antlers, the mouse goes into a cardboard box to have her litter but when it rains it proves not to be the shelter she is after, and so on. Each animal in the vicinity becomes embroiled in the things the Pigwigs have discarded and decide to take action. They march on Hodge Podge Lodge and point out the problem to the family, bringing along the rubbish that has blown their way. Miss Pigwig comes up with a very good idea and later invites all the animals back to HodgePodge Lodge for a fair where she presents all the rubbish recycled and reused. She gets some bins with signs on the side to help reuse, recycle and compost the rubbish they have while one bin is for the things that are totally useless.
A cute introduction to the ideas behind recycling, this would help younger children understand the impact that rubbish has upon our environment and the animals that live there.
Fran Knight