That's Why We Don't Eat Animals: A Book About Vegans, Vegetarians, and All Living Things

That's Why We Don't Eat Animals: 

                
A Book About Vegans, Vegetarians, 
and All Living Things

                                   Written and Illustrated by Ruby Roth

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"While some animals are protected by laws or born into loving homes, others live painful and lonely lives on factory farms where hundreds or thousands of animals are raised for meat and dairy. But they too live and breathe. They too have feelings and families."

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This well written and creatively designed book was written to introduce children to the lives of farm animals versus factory animals. The author/illustrator tells the story of how factory animals and farm animals have the same feelings and both want and need to be treated with care, love, and respect. Farm animals are treated like pets..... Factory animals aren't treated the same way...

"On factory farms, there are no animal families. With no mama in sight, these babies live without a sense of family or safety. Animals belong in families, packs, herds, and flocks. "

Roth depicts the farm animals through pictures and colors that are bright, cheery, and inviting. They express hope and family orientation. However, the pictures and words for the factory animals show the suffering, depression, and sad existence that they are forced to endure for their entire lives until they are slaughtered to provide the food that people throughout the world enjoy.

If a picture can provide a thousand words, open Roth's book and take a look at the way the ducks and geese are shown in this book. You can see the desperation and depression in their eyes... on their faces... and their bodies too.... There are droppings everywhere and the ducks and geese have sores on their bodies. A couple of the geese have their heads down as they await their ill fated execution...They know that there is no one to save them.. There will be no stay of execution... Their end is near..... They can only accept their fate... and wait...

If there is any doubt of their fate.... The Ruby Roth's words confirm this...

"Every winter, ducks and geese journey across the Earth to lands where their babies will be warm. They fly through the skies for days and months, crossing over states and even entire countries. But factory-farms ducks and geese are caged behind bars and force-fed to make them fat. The skies above them are endless, but these birds will never fly."

Reading these words and looking at the pictures might bring tears to one's eyes! There will need to be a discussion with children before, during, and after reading this book to children..... 

Roth tells it like it is and it might be a little upsetting for some of the smaller children. 

This book compares the lives of various farm animals with their factory farm counterparts in a well thought out and organized manner... The chickens, turkeys, quail, ducks,  geese, pigs, cows, fish, endangered species, and the planet are crying out for our help....... They know they are helpless and will perish if we do not lend them a hand.......

Near the end of this book, there is a description of the ocean, fish, the rain forest, endangered species, how foods affect our planet, and this book ends with "What Else Can We Do?"

What Else Can We Do is a great way to end the book so that children and their parents can implement ways to protect our animals, oceans, and our planet so that we all (including our planet) don't become extinct.

Some of the suggestions include reading books on animals, veganism, vegetarianism, and raw foods. They invite children to discover new vegetarian and vegan foods; to write school reports on veganism and vegetarianism; to look up raw, vegan, and vegetarian recipes and products on the internet with your parents.

Other recommendations include celebrating Thanksgiving and other holidays with a vegan feast; feeding our pets vegetarian pet food; joining an organization that helps the Earth, animals, and the environment; recycling and reusing!

I loved reading this book and have shared and recommended it to readers young and not so young! This book will make for a great story time to introduce young readers on where our food comes from and what we need to do to save our planet and make it a better place for everyone and everything to live... including humans, animals, plants... our entire planet!

What a great read............ I found this book an exciting read as I thought about how the most popular books in my school library were the cookbooks and this was true for the students in all grade levels. When I purchased materials and negotiated with vendors and public libraries to obtain free materials, I always made certain to acquire cookbooks and other food-related books, because I knew that the children would enjoy reading them and would try the recipes at home. We would often begin the library class with a brief discussion on how much they enjoyed the books and which recipes they cooked over the weekend!

For more information, please visit:

www.WeDontEatAnimals.com

Until the next time...... 

Happy Eating.... and Happy Reading.........

A children's book a day, keeps the scary monster away!