Gifts from the Garbage Truck: A True Story About the Things We (Don’t) Throw Away (2024) is a very earnest picture book. A foreword by sanitation worker Nelson Molina sets the book up, giving personal and cultural background for Andrew Larson’s story about Molina. (Molina’s foreword is definitely aimed at adult readers, who will need to read and explain this to their kids.)
Larson explains how young Nelson was raised in a family and culture of frugality, where people re-used things when they could. This led Nelson to start repairing things that people had thrown away, turning trash into literal treasures for family members.
This childhood practice laid the foundation for his career as a New York City Sanitation Worker, where Nelson worked to keep the great city clean…and kept up his practice of finding and restoring great things that had been thrown away. These items became a great collection, which became a museum many people now visit.
Oriol Vidal’s illustrations echo the posters that you can see many places in New York, and help make Nelson’s story part of the city’s story.
I’m not sure I’d say this book is great, but it is good, and heart-felt. I gave a little sigh when I finished it.
