2010 Environment Award for Children's Literature

'Something About Water' by Penny Matthews, joint winner of the 2010 Environment Award for Children's Literature

This World Environment Day, the Wilderness Society is pleased to announce that Something About Water by Penny Matthews, illustrated by Tom Jellett; and The Great Barrier Reef Book: Solar Powered by Dr Mark Norman are the joint winners of the 2010 Environment Award for Children's Literature.

Something About Water is an entertaining cartoon style book, presenting interesting and important information about this crucial liquid on which all life depends. Water is a finite resource which has been endlessly recycled over billions of years - the book contains interesting snippets such as the fact that the two-thirds of each person that is made up of water could once have been  part of a dinosaur, or a daffodil, or Leonardo da Vinci.

The Great Barrier Reef has been likened to a gigantic forest powered by the sun and teeming with life - but this biodiversity is now gravely threatened by rising global temperatures. The Great Barrier Reef Book: Solar Powered is a beautifully presented book showcasing some of the strange and colourful creatures that inhabit the reef. The book includes many things we can each do to help prevent global warming.

'The Great Barrier Reef Book: Solar Powered' by Dr Mark Norman, joint winner of the 2010 Environment Award for Children's Literature

Both winning books have been produced in compliance with the Forest Stewardship Council. 'FSC is a non-profit international organization established to promote responsible management of the world's forests'. The FSC logo (located with a book's publishing details) will become increasingly common as publishers are urged to become more environmentally responsible.

Both Something About Water and The Great Barrier Reef Book: Solar Powered promote environmental values and sense of caring and responsibility for the environment.

The Wilderness Society is a community based environmental protection organisation supported by many Australian families. The Wilderness Society works to safeguard our sources of clean water and air, to tackle climate change, to create a safe future for life on Earth, and to give a better world to our children which is why it established these awards in 1993. To be eligible for the award a book must encourage caring for the natural environment.

The Wilderness Society's conservation work to protect and restore natural environments is also taken to schools around the country. Our Community Campaigners regularly conduct free, engaging presentations to school groups to explain such things as the role forests play in helping our climate and why habitat protection is crucial to halt Australia's spiralling extinction rate.