Gifts from the Garbage Truck

Starred review from August 19, 2024
“When I was a child, my mother taught me not to waste anything we could use again and to repair what could be saved. We didn’t look at things and say, ‘This is worthless,’ ” writes Nelson Molina in the foreword to this book about the museum he curated: Treasures in the Trash, which displays 45,000 items found in garbage collected in New York City’s El Barrio neighborhood. In crisp, retro-style digital artwork that utilizes printmaking textures, Vidal (the Hello Genius series) portrays Molina as a boy making birdhouses with scraps of discarded wood, then repairing a tossed toy garbage truck and giving it to his delighted younger brother. Larsen (Jungle Cat) narrates in clear, documentary-style prose, following Molina into adulthood as he becomes a sanitation worker (“He rode around in a great big garbage truck, working on the streets where he used to play”) and starts collecting and arranging the many curious, often valuable objects that people throw out, calling them each “a gift from the garbage.” Eventually, as conveyed by this fresh look at consuming less and reusing creatively, the extraordinary collection grows up “to become a museum,” one that invites visitors “to think differently about the things we throw away.” Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Back matter includes more ideas for reuse as well as photographs of Molina and his collection. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Fiona Kenshole, Transatlantic Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Simon Bollinger, Shannon and Assoc.