Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed Their World

Energy Island

By: Allan Drummond

Published by: Farrar Strauss Giroux

Teachers' Choice List 2012

Science Nonfiction

On a small island in Denmark called Samso, lives a group of people who found a way to create their own energy. The island was using energy like everyone else in the world: oil for houses and cars, and electricity for lights. Soon this would change when the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy chose the island to become independent of nonrenewable energy. The people on the island all worked together to come up with ways to create their own energy. Of course because the island was so windy, the number one way they did was through wind turbines. Sometimes the island harnesses enough wind to send some back to the mainland in Denmark!

This book is a real life story to show children how important and fragile our world is. Throughout the book, there are side columns explaining things like nonrenewable resources and global warming. This would be a great choice for Earth Day or to learn about helping our planet.

Reading Level:

     Grade Level: 1-5

Suggested Delivery:

     Read Aloud, Individual Read

Electronic Resources:

http://www.alliantenergykids.com/EnergyandTheEnvironment/RenewableEnergy/index.htm
This site gives definitions and examples of all different kinds of renewable energy sources. Many were mentioned in the book, like wind, biomass and solar. There is a link to 'Fun and Games' where students can "test their energy smarts" or find projects to try at home. This site would be a good way for students to look at the information from the story in a different light and maybe even apply what they learned in a practical way.
http://www.allandrummond.com/
This is the author, Allan Drummond's personal website. He writes about the different books he has written and is currently working on. He also has links to his portfolio and a biography section. This would be a nice site for students to learn a little more about the author.
http://www.kids.esdb.bg/basic.html
This is another informational site for students with facts about all different kinds of energy. There are sections about what energy is and the different places it can come from. There is also a games tab and a tab titled "New Energy" which gives information about the types of energy from the story.
http://us.macmillan.com/FSGYoungReaders.aspx
This is the website for the publisher of the book. The site has many tabs for their books and authors, as well as a link for teachers and librarians.

Key Vocabulary:
energy, nonrenewable energy, energy-independent, renewable energy, turbine, biomass, canola, fossil fuels, global warming

Comprehension Strategies:

Before Reading:
Doing a vocabulary lesson before reading the story would be helpful to students' comprehension because the new vocabulary words are content specific to energy. The vocabulary list above gives a good sample of the "energy" words from the story. Have the class sit together and simply discuss what they think these words might mean. Some are harder concepts than others, but the teacher can help explain these harder words, while with the easier concepts, students will be able to generally explain.

During Reading:
While reading the story aloud to the class, making sure everyone is understanding these new concepts in context is important. Encourage students to raise their hand at any point if they do not understand a concept. By stopping the story to explain, it will allow that student to understand, while also reinforcing the idea with the rest of the class.

After Reading:
After reading the story, have students predict what will happen next. Will the rest of the world try to use renewable resources like the island did? Why do you think we haven't done such extreme projects in our town? (Cost?)

Writing Activity:
Have students use their imaginations to apply this idea to their community. Write about how their community could use renewable resources instead of oil and gas. Have students write their plan for how the community would switch over and how they would convince citizens of the town to agree to it.

Drummond, Allan. Energy island: how one community harnessed the wind and changed their world. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011. Print.