Mio And The Apple Trees
Xuan Zhang
Using simple shapes, colors, and text, Mio and the Apple Trees is a children’s book that conveys to children ages three to six the concept of a sustainable lifestyle. The story is about a little boy named Mio, who lives beside the woods with apple trees, and always likes to play there and pick apples. But one day the trees get cut down by loggers, and Mio is saddened. Later his parents’ actions affect him a lot. Mio learns from his parents how to reuse parts of the damaged trees to create simple, daily supplies, tools, and, long-lasting furniture to achieve a sustainable lifestyle where nothing goes to waste. This short story is aimed to show children the sustainability of ecology. Forests are destroyed by many man-made reasons such as urbanization and construction to extract other resources. However, there are still many ways we can reduce the damage of these bad decisions. Mio’s story provides children possibilities that they can do to achieve ecological sustainability: maximize the reuse of damaged trees and plant more trees in order to replace cut-down trees. The design of the book also gives children an approachable and tactile-way to read the story. By incorporating the cut-out shapes, children can create new graphics and spaces when turning the page and create a stimulating reading experience.