On the cold Canadian Prairies, a diesel pickup truck with the sign, "Built to be dirty" pulls onto the mall parking lot right beside middle school students Spring Cloud, Norman, and Amelia/Shortcut and they get lost in the large black cloud of exhaust fumes spewing from the tailpipe.
That night, Spring Cloud has a dream: A massive black cloud is racing across the sky. The field of flowers dies in its shadow, but when Spring Cloud and her friends run from the cloud, the flowers come back to life where the friends step on them. The cloud speaks, "I am Fazuzu, god of famine..." and threatens to cause more damage.
The dream inspires adventure and Spring Cloud, Norman, and Amelia search for clues that will help them save the environment. Their teacher, Miss Twitchboddom helps them when she says, "We continue to take more than the Earth can give and we need to start pressing the right buttons and giving Earth a gentle touch."
They start searching for clues as to what they should do. Finally, they discover a gadget that has special abilities to clean Earth's air.
Find out what the Gadget Gang creates and learn the importance of taking care of the environment in Gadget to Save the Planet, a juvenile fiction novel meant for eight-to twelve-year-old readers that focuses on an issue of great importance in these days of climate change.
About the Author: It was in his exciting childhood days that author Ted Haas, along with his neighbourhood friends, challenged themselves in a variety of ways. Their outdoor explorations and adventures included swinging on vines hanging from the trees along the riverbank, going for extensive bicycle rides, climbing the nearby mountain, hunting salamanders in the stream and climbing in the limestone quarry. Life was an adventure, and the time spent having outdoor fun formed in him an appreciation of nature which has deep roots in these days of climate challenge. After he married, he and his wife moved to the wilderness north of the Arctic Circle where they worked, raised their family, and lived off the land for a good portion of their food. It is from these roots of adventurous living that Ted Haas draws for this face-paced environmental adventure taken by three young friends.
