Green Books Campaign: Erik's Enigma (Ranger in Danger)

From Eco-Libris:

This review is part of the Green Books campaign. Today 200 bloggers take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. By turning a spotlight on books printed using eco-friendly paper, we hope to raise the awareness of book buyers and encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books. 

The campaign is organized for the second time by Eco-Libris, a green company working to make reading more sustainable. We invite you to join the discussion on "green" books and support books printed in an eco-friendly manner! A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on the Eco-Libris website.

Review by Tintin, age 7

Ranger in Danger: Erik's Enigma
Authors/illustrator: Sean Willmore and Alison Reynolds/Andrew Hopgood
Publisher: Five Mile Press
Printed on 100% recycled paper.

Erik's Enigma is about two rangers who go on different adventures in Scandinavia. This book is a Decide Your Destiny book. That means you get to pick different adventures. Ranger in Danger goes to Scandinavia because he is going to help Rigmor, another ranger, find a Viking named Erik. They think he is doing bad things to the environment. I like this book because I got to choose my own pages and find different endings. My favorite part was when Ranger in Danger's tongue stuck to the ice. I would recommend this book to kids who like to read about rangers and kids who like to save animals.

LitLass's notes: Tintin loves this kind of book and wants to collect them all. Here are the rest of the books in the Ranger in Danger series:

• Diablo's Doom (set in Africa)
• Hernando's Labyrinth (set in South America)
• King Cobra's Curse (set in India)
• Rapscallion's Revenge (set in Australia)
• Takama's Tyranny (set in the Pacific)

And some cool facts we learned from Erik's Enigma:

1. Your tongue will stick to ice if you lick it.
2. A musk ox will attack you if you take a picture of it.
3. About 100 people can fit inside a blue whale's mouth.

A couple of activities to go along with the book:

Since this is a Decide Your Destiny book, we turned a walk at our local nature preserve into our own Decide Your Destiny adventure. Our mini rangers chose which paths to take, but they faced many dangers: sharp cacti, red (blood-stained?) leaves, poisonous berries, protruding limbs threatening to trip them, secret messages scrawled on the wood railings leading to the "Dragon Tower." Fortunately, we made it back safely, but who knows what could have happened if we had chosen a different trail.

Safe and sound back at home, we made Viking helmets. According to Erik's Enigma, Vikings didn't wear horned helmets in battle; the horns were popularized in the 19th century to attract operagoers. So here are the boys, sporting their hornless Viking helmets (which might also double as stay-put yarmulkes come Passover).

To make them, I put an old t-shirt around their heads and duct-taped around their foreheads. I then cut off the extra t-shirt material that was below their foreheads and we duct-taped the rest. They added some gold duct tape for decoration.

Now that you've gotten through this review, please go to the Eco-Libris website to find reviews from the 199 other bloggers participating in the Green Books campaign today. Of course, feel free to comment here first.