Michael Recycle Meets Litterbug Doug »

Litterbug Doug is lazy. He is wasteful. He is messy. But worst of all, he hates recycling! The clean and green town where he lives is in danger from his lazy ways, not to mention suffering from the stench released by the mountains of garbage that Doug leaves wherever he goes! So strong is its stink that even the army of rats that follow Doug around are rethinking their friendship with him. It's up to Michael Recycle, planet Earth's green-caped crusader, to show dastardly Doug the error of his ways...before it's too late!

Children's Literature

Michael Recycle is back in his second book to save the world from rubbish. Slovenly Litterbug Doug lives atop a mountain of debris near a quaint little town. Doug's place is a garbage dump, and his only friends are a hundred rats and two cats. When he decides to toss his cats down the hill, they cause the dump to fall onto the town. Just then, Michael Recycle swoops in to proclaim, "Littering's wrong: you've got to recycle!" He converts Doug with the promise of people friends (rather than rats) if he will mend his ways. Doug immediately converts, cleans up, and becomes the litter police. A two-page spread entitled "Litterbug Doug's Trash Roundup" in the back of the book is filled with facts about recycling. This is followed with a similar spread listing "Michael Recycle's Go Green Tips." Written in verse, the obviously didactic message is somewhat saved by the colorful, cartoon-like illustrations. The mounds of trash and the active, buck-toothed rats provide humorous details that enliven the preachy text. Reviewer: Phyllis Kennemer, Ph.D.