Book excerpt: Handmade Books For A Healthy Planet is a how-to book with a purposeto take tiny steps to make our planet more healthy by creating books from around the world with recycled materials. Using everyday tools and easy-to-find materials, children and their families and teachers experience the joy of using their hands, minds, and hearts to make books that tell their stories and reflect on the world around them. With fascinating facts about the history of books and illustrated step-by-step directions, the sixteen earth-friendly projects, including a Wish Scroll from Ethiopia, a Medieval Book of Hours and a Book of Haiku from Japan, promote cultural understanding and teach us to see things not just for what they are but for what they can become.