The Sustainable School: A Journey Through Time and Energy is a compelling graphic-novel hybrid for middle-grade readers from author Erica Fyvie and illustrator Scot Ritchie. The story kicks off when a group of sixth graders in 2025 discovers a time capsule buried by students from their same school back in 1900. While the century-old letters marvel at then-modern innovations like indoor plumbing and electric lights, the 2025 students are inspired to brainstorm their own future-forward ideas. This sparks a project where they envision sustainable improvements for their school, such as kinetic playground equipment and rooftop gardens, and speculate on what student life will be like in 2125.
This title is an excellent resource for pulling in students who are developing their reading skills or are new to English. Its greatest strength is the hybrid graphic-novel format, which uses Scot Ritchie’s extensive, comics-style illustrations to aid comprehension. A student who might be overwhelmed by text-heavy non-fiction can easily follow the narrative and grasp the scientific concepts through the clear visual panels, which cleverly shift from sepia tones for the past to full color for the present. The language is deliberately accessible; sentence structures are predominantly simple and compound, and confusing idiomatic language is kept to a minimum. While the book does introduce necessary STEM vocabulary, such as “kinetic energy,” these terms are clearly supported by a child-friendly glossary, removing barriers to understanding. Having earned a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, this book provides a high-interest, low-readability pathway into complex topics of history, technology, and climate action.
