Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed Their World

Author: Allan Drummond

Illustrator: Allan Drummond

Peach’s Picks Rating:

 

Year of publication: 2011

City of publication: New York

Publisher: Farrar, Straus, Giroux

ISBN: 978-0-374-32184-0

Author website: http://www.allandrummond.com/index.htm

Illustrator website: See “Author website entry”

Media used for illustrations: Tinted drawings

Annotation: This nonfiction picturebook tells the story of the island of Samsø, Denmark. The inhabitants harnessed wind power and reduced their carbon emissions by 140 percent during a ten year period.

Personal reaction to the book: The book opens by establishing the island of Samsø, Denmark as a very windy place to live. Over and over again the reader sees hats blowing from people’s heads, gusts of wind moving from left to right across the page, windmills twirling, and leaves being blown about. Samsø was selected by the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy “as the ideal place … to become independent of nonrenewable energy” (page 6). Søren Hermansen, an environmental studies teacher, was selected to lead the project. Hermansen promoted the plan to everyone on the island. The community thought it was a good idea, but found excuses not to begin. Residents said that start-up would be too costly and that they were too busy to tackle the project. Other residents like Ole Jørgensen responded to the idea by saying, “What difference can we make to the world?” (page 12). Residents had excuses for not beginning the project. Hermansen was persistent and talked to the islanders for years about the energy-independence. Finally, electrician Brian Kjær, and farmer Jørgen Tranberg decided to install wind turbines. The venture had begun. Then, one cold and dark winter’s night, a snowstorm hit the island.  All electricity went out, except at Kjær’s home where his turbine continued to provide electricity as the wind blew. Soon everyone on the island learned about Kjær’s victory over the winter storm. The people of Samsø were convinced and embraced the concept of becoming energy-independent and the benefits of doing so. The project began in earnest. Readers learn that currently turbines are located throughout the island of Samsø. The island also houses an Energy Academy directed by Søren Hermansen. People come from around the world to learn more about how the inhabitants of Samsø managed to reduce their carbon emissions by 140 percent in 10 years and how the reduction of carbon emissions can be realized in their communities. Sidebars running along the select pages offer further in-depth information about nonrenewable energy, renewable energy, and energy independence. The background of the sidebars is printed in a grass green color emphasizing the “green” theme of the book. The tinted drawings suit the tone of the story well. Illustrations are laid out in a panel-like manner with the text running below. In nearly every picture the wind is shown blowing from the far left side of the page to the right. This technique serves to show the wind’s strength and constancy as well as inviting the reader to turn the page and continue reading. The illustrations use light blue, green, and pink colors accented with yellow. This is an interesting story and useful when studying renewable energy. However, it has some flaws. The reader does not learn how Mr. Tranberg, the other member of the community who installed a turbine, fared in the snow storm. Did he lose electricity? How did his experience during the storm affect the islanders? The reader does not meet Tranberg again until the end of the book when we are invited to go with him “to the very top of his fantastic wind turbine so we can see what Samsø looks like today” (page 24). Next, the map found on page 3 is a muddle with a poor representation of Europe. Denmark cannot be distinguished nor is it apparent that Denmark includes many islands. It would have been helpful if the author included a pronunciation key offering a phonetic guide to names of Danish places and people. Finally, the book lacks a bibliography and a list of websites directing readers to more information about becoming energy-independent, about Samsø, and about the Energy Academy located on the island. The author does include a note at the end explaining how he became interested in Samsø and wind power.

General curricular connections:

• Ecology
• Renewable energy sources
• Wind power

Specific example of curricular connection matched to Standards:
Subject: Science / Ecology
Grade level: 6-7

Standard:

National Science Teachers Association  

The following quotation was retrieved from http://www.nsta.org/about/positions/environmental.aspx?lid=ms

NSTA Position Statement

Environmental Education

Introduction

“NSTA strongly supports environmental education as a way to instill environmental literacy in our nation's pre-K–16 students. It should be a part of the school curriculum because student knowledge of environmental concepts establishes a foundation for their future understandings and actions as citizens. Central to environmental literacy is the ability of students to master critical-thinking skills that will prepare them to evaluate issues and make informed decisions regarding stewardship of the planet. The environment also offers a relevant context for the learning and integration of core content knowledge, making it an essential component of a comprehensive science education program.”

The National Academy of Sciences suggests content standards for grades 5-8 that include the study of “Science in Personal and Social Perspectives: Populations, resources and environments” (page 110). “By grades 5-8, students begin to develop a more conceptual understanding of ecological crises. “For example, they begin to realize the cumulative ecological effects of pollution” (page 167).

Common Core Standards

Writing Standards 6-12

Grade 6 students: Research to Build and Present Knowledge

7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate.

Grade 7 students: Research to Build and Present Knowledge

7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions for further research and investigation.

Recommended grade levels:

School Library Journal recommends this book for use with grades 2-6

Booklist recommends this book for use with grades 1-3

Peach’s Picks recommends this book for use with grades 2-8

Awards/Recognitions:

Booklist starred review

School Library Journal starred review

Note: This book applies to the assignment criteria - books published in 2010-2011. The title was selected from the list of the Association for Service to Children/ALA Notable Children’s Books – Nominated Titles for Discussion, 2011 Annual Conference - New Orleans, Informational picture books

Repetition in text: “Hold on to your hats!” found throughout the book

Repetition in illustration: Found throughout the book, people’s hats blowing off their heads

Metaphor: Page 29: The planet earth as an island

Book cover picture retrieved from http://us.macmillan.com/energyisland/