We love Louis Sachar (whose name rhymes with cracker – in case you were wondering) and after reading Fuzzy Mud I decided that it qualified as a vegan book for children 🙂 It doesn’t use the v-word but the main protagonist seems to be a plant-eater (there is no mention of any meat/fish/egg or dairy in her diet) and the grippingly entertaining story is wrapped around a vitally important environmental message. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover that Louis Sachar was veg*n but I have no idea whether he actually is. Anyway, this book qualifies so I wanted to share it with you 🙂
The story is about Tamaya who has a scholarship to a posh school and walks there every day with Marshall who is a year older than her (they’re pre-teens I think). They never go through the woods because there are creepy rumours about a strange guy who lives there. And they’ve been told not to. Meanwhile, on the other side of the woods a laboratory is developing a new “green” fuel, made of artificially engineered living micro-organisms, aka ‘fuzzy mud’. Well, one day, after being challenged to a fight by the school bully, Marshall decides, for his own safety, to go home via the woods. Tamaya doesn’t want to go that way but she’s not supposed to walk home alone so she follows him. And that’s when it gets really scary!
I’m not going to tell you anymore (and don’t spoil it for yourself by reading the Amazon blurb because it gives too much away) because you should get the book and enjoy the whole thing from the beginning 🙂
Author: Louis Sachar
Genre: Juvenile fiction/thriller
Recommended for readers aged 8 and up
Format: Paperback (256 pages) and Kindle Edition and Audio Download
Published: August 2016
ISBN-10: 1408864754
ISBN-13: 978-1408864753
Dimensions: 19.7 x 1.3 x 13.1cm
Available from Amazon and undoubtedly other bookshops and libraries 🙂
You can get vegan plastic-free toothpaste, mouthwash, floss, toothbrushes – everything your teeth could ever need from Georganics, including cardboard-packaged tooth soap and refills. Check it out! 😀
Toothbrushes
According to the Australian Environmental Toothbrush website, over 30 million toothbrushes are used and disposed of by Australians annually, amounting to approximately 1000 tonnes of landfill each year. The plastic they’re made of won’t break down in our lifetime. Nor within the lifetime of our children. Imagine that on a global scale. This is what inspired a Brisbane dentist to invent the wonderful Environmental toothbrush.
Thankfully they are easy to get hold of in this country too and you may well find them in your local health food store. If not you can get them from Living Naturally (the soapnut people) and of course they sell them on Amazon 🙂 I recommend ordering a few from Living Naturally when you get your soapnuts 😉
These toothbrushes are lovely and they come wrapped in nothing but a little cardboard box. Being made of bamboo they are safely compostable if you remove the bristles – they haven’t been able to find natural bristles yet so they’re made of a BPA-free polymer, as they explain here, but still this toothbrush is far superior to one made entirely of plastic.
We use our toothbrushes for cleaning the bathroom when our teeth have finished with them.
Toothpaste
Toothpaste is very difficult to find without plastic, so let us know if you find any. We’ve just discovered Remineralizing Tooth Salve, haven’t tried it yet but it looks very promising. It’s made by Ophir Naturals and we came across it at Living Naturally. These little tabs come in a glass jar (unfortunately it does have a plastic lid) and according to the manufacturer, they enable the teeth to re-propogate enamel through the process of remineralization (you can read the scientific details here). They’re vegan, sustainable and fair trade; and their customer testimonials are very impressive. It’s quite expensive but if it does as it claims it’ll be worth every penny for what you’ll save on dental work. I’m really looking forward to trying these – I’ll let you know how we get on 🙂
post script: 10.42pm – we’ve now tried them and, well, the soapy taste is gonna take some getting used to – Miranda ate a cake afterwards to get rid of the taste 😉 – but I’m so encouraged by the testimonials on their website that I have high-hopes for their effect on my teeth and I will continue using them 😀
pps: Just wanted to add that I’m now really enjoying Ophir Remineralizing tooth salve – it’s so soft on my teeth and I got used to the taste very quickly. Unlike conventional toothpaste, this tooth salve is not abrasive. It cleans your teeth like you clean the rest of your body – with soap. And it is genuinely effective at getting your teeth back to their natural pearly colour! It’s worth noting that it’s not actually a good idea to use abrasives on your teeth too often because if you grind down the enamel you’ll be able to see through to the dentine underneath which is yellow 😀
Update:
For those who prefer the more conventional minty white toothpaste, you can buy Denttabs!
According to their website, DENTTABS Toothpaste Tablets are THE sustainable alternative to toothpaste. They are 100% plastic-free, ecological and free from preservatives, artificial stabilizers and any other unnecessary ingredients! They do a lovely job polishing your teeth once a week (if you’re using the Ophir Naturals the rest of the time) or for every day use if you prefer. They’re available with fluoride or without. Find a zero waste shop near you and ask them to stock them, or google them to find out where you can buy them online. They come in a glass jar, with refills in paper bags.
Plastic-free VEGAN floss
Georganics Charcoal Dental Floss is a natural floss made with bamboo charcoal fibre, candelilla wax and peppermint essential oil. This 30 metres floss clew is packed in a zero-waste and plastic-free glass container with a metal dispensing lid to allow you to easily cut the floss. When you’ve used up all the dental floss you buy refills to put in your little glass dispenser. We found this in Infinity Foods health food shop in Brighton so check out your local health food store and if you can’t find it there you can order it online 😀
Deodorant
We use natural volcanic alum stone instead of packaged deodorant and we get on very well with it. After washing and drying your skin, you just wet the stone, rub it under your arms and leave your skin to air dry. Rinse the stone, dry it and put it somewhere safe for next time. One stone will last for months. This really works!
Admittedly I don’t often do activities that make me sweat but when I occasionally do get hot and sweaty and have been a bit worried that I’m starting to smell, I notice a few minutes later that the smell has completely gone. It’s like the alum, which inhibits the growth of the microbes which cause the smell, takes a couple of minutes to neutralise them. So even if you get sweaty and start to notice an unwelcome odour, you’ll find that it disappears after a few minutes 😀 When this has happened to me I check my skin again at the end of the day and find it smells lovely and clean, not a suggestion of anything unpleasant. The only thing to be aware of is that your clothes may start to smell if they are in close contact with your armpits, so it’s best to wear things that are loose under your arms so that they don’t become contaminated if you do sweat. The stone will only keep your skin smelling sweet, not the fabric that sticks to it 😉
For those who feel they need a little more protection, Miranda uses this in the summer when she’s cycling. She gets really sweaty and says this works brilliantly. It’s a lovely cream which goes a long way because you only need a very thin layer on your skin. Packaged in a glass jar with a metal lid, it is provided by the lovely people at Living Naturally. It comes in Rose & Lavender, Citrus & Ylang, or fragrance-free.
The curse
There’s no longer any need to use disposable products for your monthly curse – go to Earthwise Girls to get everything you need in terms of washable, reusable, organic, natural, eco-friendly alternatives 😀
Hand Creams and Moisturisers
This cream is gorgeous. It’s organic, it’s vegan and it’s the best moisturising cream I’ve found. It’s perfect for making dry skin (hands and body) silky smooth (I used it on my tattoo and it was perfect for the job), and it says on the tin you can also use it on your face. It smells heavenly and comes in a tin with a foil seal over the top. No plastic at all. You can get it from Holland & Barrett 😀
Alternatively, you can get a selection of soapnut moisturisers in glass jars from Living Naturally 🙂
Soap
For those who don’t want to wash their hair and bodies with soapnut water, Living Naturally provides lovely soap and shampoo bars. You can buy all sorts of varieties, singly or 5 at a time. If you buy one singly, it comes it a little drawstring linen bag; if you buy 5 for a little discount, they come wrapped together in a single sheet of paper.
Once you’ve accepted that you can’t always get organic, it’s not difficult to avoid plastic. If you can’t find enough loose produce at your usual supermarket, find out if there’s a good old fashioned market in your town. We’ve found one which is just a big fruit and veg stall in the town centre, once or twice a week. The guys who run it are really friendly, they sell quality seasonal fruit and vegetables, provide small (compostable) paper bags to fill, and it’s very good value for money – much better even than the supermarkets. Just take your own shopping bags and get them to weigh as much as you need. We bought a big 12.5 kg sack of Desiree potatoes from them for just £5!
We also have a health food shop not too far away which sells a small selection of loose organic produce which is great although we can’t get there every week.
Or you might be able to find a local organic produce grower who operates a veg box scheme whereby you order a weekly veg box from them and they deliver it to your door. They will be happy to leave the box in a designated safe place if you’re going to be out and you’ll get a great selection of whatever is in season. The soil Association will help you find a scheme near you 🙂
As for other necessary staples – you can probably get most of them in glass jars or tins. We used to buy lentils, sultanas, pasta, tofu, cereal etc etc in plastic packets because we thought we couldn’t avoid it, but now we’re getting our lentils in tins and we’ll manage without cereal, pasta and dried fruit. We buy organic oats in paper bags and I’ll mix them with fresh fruit for my breakfast instead of sultanas.
*Since writing this I have discovered theZero Waste Club– a wonderful mail order company in London from whom you can order organic dried fruit, nuts, grains, pasta, sugar, pulses, seeds, cocoa, popcorn, herbs and spices and more! You order it by weight and they mail it to you wrapped in paper bags. See Plastic Avoidance: Part 7.
Things like vinegar, ketchup and oil are easy to get in glass bottles, although sadly I don’t think there’s any way of avoiding the plastic pouring spout they put in the oil bottles. But I always think, even if everything is not as perfect as you’d like it to be, the world would be a better place if everyone at least did this. Same goes for things like cocoa powder and gravy granules – they come in cardboard tubs with metal bottoms and a plastic lid. Sometimes mostly plastic-free is the best you can do.
Lots of other staples that have always been wrapped in paper, still are. You can get bread in paper bags from a bakery, or you can make your own. I haven’t been able to buy salt without plastic wrapping but if you buy things with salt already added – like the stock cubes above (paper-wrapped in a cardboard box) – then you can manage without it.Something else to be aware of is that tea bags (which are supposed to be compostable) are actually made of 20% plastic. See here for a great post with more details about that and sign this petition aimed at getting Unilever to remove all plastic from their tea bags. Be aware though, it’s not just Unilever that does it, this is common practice. The only way to be sure you’re not getting plastic is to buy loose tea leaves 🙂 And if you check this out you’ll see that there are a lot more uses for tea leaves than just a relaxing drink.
Need a meal in a hurry? Well, you can’t buy hash browns or oven chips anymore, but look what you can buy! There are all sorts of delicious and convenient ready-prepared vegan goodies in cardboard containers in the freezer section of your supermarket.
Oh dear, it’s not looking good for planet Earth and all its inhabitants. If you’d like to try to help the bewitched break the spell you could do as Maud suggests and share this story far and wide. The children of non-vegan parents who are caught up in the spell could be helped to snap out of it if they found this book in their library – it’s worth a try, isn’t it?
The colour version, with Beatrice Wilberforce’s illustrations, is only £3.90
And, by the way, it’s surprisingly fun how easy it is to make a book look like a real bona fide library book with simple, easily edited, or not, photocopies stuck on the first page.
and maybe even one of those removable plastic book jackets they often have, which come in different sizes and are often on discarded library books 🙂
It’s way past time for a new Fairy Tale and, since we’re approaching Halloween it’s the perfect time. So, on Monday, we’ll begin a scary new tale by Maud Earnshaw, illustrated by Beatrice Wilberforce:
The Wicked Witch’s Plan To Get Rid Of Everyone
Ooh, I’ve got shivers 😮
And, just to get you in the mood, here’s a poem (read it aloud, slowly) 🙂 :
“T-wit T-woo,” go the owls,
Sc-ratch and dangle, the spiders.
The witch is thinking, she frowns, she scowls,
New brooms fly by with riders.
***
A flickering light, the rising of smoke,
From the clearing, through the trees,
Gives away the location of quivering folk
Around the fire, on their knees.
***
In a fairy tale world with fairy tale rules
The wicked have much to fear.
They’ve been unkind, selfish, heartless fools,
Which won’t be tolerated here.
***
Fairy tales, creepy tales, mystical magic tales,
Castles and fairies and witches and ghosts.
Suspend disbelief for these ‘anything can happen’ tales,
Where innocents get rescued and evil gets smote.
See you Monday 😉
What? You don’t want to wait ’til Monday? Well, I wasn’t going to tell you this but …. ok, The Wicked Witch’s Plan To Get Rid Of Everyone was originally published with sinister black and white illustrations by the author and with the title The Wicked Wicked Witch and the Ruinous Manipulation – funnily enough it’s the story referred to in the video I showed you yesterday. Anyway, if you like it dark and sinister and don’t want to wait for Beatrice’s colourful version, you can read the story now at Maud’s place: https://thewickedwickedwitchandtheruinousmanipulation.wordpress.com/
Silly Verse FOR KIDS by Spike Milligan was one of my favourites as a child (I saved up for it with my pocket money and bought it from the village shop) and I still love it. So I decided to make something similar, full of funny, quirky poems: HUMANS ARE NOT OMNIVORES [poems your teacher might not like] (I decided not to beat around the bush with the title!)
Spike Milligan was a brilliantly irreverent vegetarian comedian and author who died in 2002 at the age of 83. He campaigned against factory farming and vivisection and was once thrown out of Harrods for trying to stuff 28lb of spaghetti down the mouth of the food hall manager because they sold pate de foie gras.
“I told him it might give him some idea of how a goose feels being force-fed maize” he said.
I modelled our new book on his, making it the same size and the same layout, so it’s only a little one – just 11cm x 18cm.
His is a Puffin book, published by Penguin. Ours is a Little Chicken book, published by Violet’s Vegan Comics 😉
And both are full of quirky, eccentric, funny poems for kids like ‘Mary Pugh’, above or a selection from Wacky Verse, examples below 😀
I hope Spike would have liked it. I hope you like it too.
All you kids who are sick of being told at school that humans are omnivores – this one is for you! 😀 😀 😀
Venus works hard trying to clean up the rubbish in the ocean in order to save the animals who are being poisoned and ensnared by it. But since 80% of the rubbish in the oceans originates on land, it’s impossible for her to keep her beloved sea clean. So, the rest of us need to make sure that all our rubbish is properly disposed and not littered. More than that, we need to actually pick up other people’s litter in order to protect wild animals and help Venus.
Yuck! That sounds like a dirty job, and it’s important to take care not to pick up anything dangerous like broken glass or needles (ask a grown up to deal with that stuff) but if we don’t do it, who will? Of course it would be better in the long run if we stop buying things that don’t degrade harmlessly in the environment – namely plastic – and then this nasty litter problem might be solved.
Anyway, I’ve invented a board game that you can make for yourself and all you need is paper; something with which to draw or paint; stones or buttons or whatever little things you’ve got lying around to use as counters; and a dice pinched from another game.
1. Paint an aerial view (map-type) picture of Venus’s home town (it doesn’t have to be the same mine, you can use your imagination 🙂 )
2. Add places to visit, like shops and cafes
3. Then add ways to score points like picking up litter; refusing to buy plastic items; recycling what you’ve found or bought; and freeing animals who have been trapped in cages.
4. Finally add stepping stones which link all these places on your map.
Now your picture should look something like this:
IF YOU CLICK ON THIS PIC YOU WILL MAGNIFY IT SO YOU CAN SEE IT BETTER
NOW YOU’RE READY TO PLAY!
Imagine you have come to visit Venus and are staying at the campsite (place all the counters at the campsite to start). But Venus is out diving, cleaning up the rubbish in the sea, so while you’re waiting for her you can explore the town.
Each person rolls the dice and the one with the highest score starts.
When you roll the dice you move that number of spaces (stepping stones) from the campsite. You can go in any direction but you can’t change direction in the middle of one roll.
The idea is to go around the town, accumulating points by landing on the award-giving spots. You have to roll the exact number to land on the award-spots (and that doesn’t mean the stepping stone next to the award-spot – you actually land on the award-spot).
You can go around the town as many times as you like and land on the same awards more than once, but if you go back to the campsite the game will be over.
In other words, the game can last as long as you like. As soon as the first person gets back to the campsite, the game is over and you add up all your points. The person with the most points is the winner (not the first person back to the campsite). So, you need to be aware of when you are in the lead on points and then get back to the campsite as quick as you can before someone else overtakes your score.
Violet's Vegan Comics 