This post is the first of a weekly feature that I am calling Growing Greener. Each week, I will share frugal ways to take small steps to live a greener life and create a healthier life for your family.
I would like to launch Growing Greener with a review of a book that I recently read and really loved: Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home by Christopher Gavigan. This book is an easy read and surprisingly, a page turner. I usually have to force myself to keep reading books that are purely informative, no matter how interested I am in the topic, but I really didn't want to put this book down. It covers a range of topics such as:- Preparing a nontoxic home- Hair and skin care tips- The truth about many every day products we use and safer alternatives- Healthy eating tips- How to green your garden and your lawn and deal with pests- How to minimize allergens in your home and fight indoor air pollution- How to choose safe toys and products for your children- How to take care of your pet greenly- How to remodel your home greenly- Recommendations for quality green products, brands, stores, and web sites
I highly recommend this book to everyone, whether you have children or not. I've often found that resources recommending green living can leave you feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes when I read the statistics about the toxins in our environment, I'm left feeling kind of paralyzed. I used to wonder if making small changes in your life in order to help the environment and live more greenly is even worth the effort because if everything is so bad for us, then why bother? It's an awful thought, but I'm being honest about it because I really believe there are a lot of people out there who have had similar thoughts at one time or another.
Here is the best thing about this book: Healthy Child, Healthy World will not make you feel like that. You will finish the book feeling hopeful and enthusiastic about making healthier choices, and you will be armed with a menu of very easy and small steps that you can implement over the course of time. These steps will improve the health of your family and of our world.
Healthy Child, Healthy World provides you with the information you need to know to understand the cause and effect of making certain choices without bogging you down in too many details. The chapters are short and reader-friendly, and they are punctuated by anecdotes written by celebrities and experts. Some celebrities grow their lives greener by making choices as small as asking people to take their shoes off when entering the house to avoid tracking in lead dust. Others admit they've made a lot of mistakes with their lifestyle choices and explain how they wish they could have done things differently. These stories are personal and extremely candid, and they make you feel as if it's truly worth it to make small, green, and healthy changes in your life.
Whether you've never recycled a can in your life or whether you feel as if you're the epitome of green living, I promise you that you'll get something out of this book and actually enjoy reading it too.
At the beginning of this post, I promised you that the Growing Greener weekly feature will provide you with frugal tips, so I am happy to share that Amazon.com has the hardcover version of Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home on sale right now for $7.61, reduced from $25.95. I rarely allow myself the luxury of purchasing books and rely mostly on the library for reading material, but this is a book that you will want to refer back to as a resource, so it is worth the purchase - especially at this price.
Also, if you're not familiar with the Amazon Mom program, you should sign up. It is a free membership program for parents, grandparents, and caregivers. You get 30% off diapers and wipes and free two day shipping, as well as several other perks. This means you can get the book shipped to your for free.

If you have other book recommendations for living a healthy, green life, please let me know in the comments section below!