Middle School Monday: Team Trash: A Time Traveler’s Guide to Sustainability by Kate Wheeler and Trent Huntington 

Charlie and Oliver are stuck together as science fair partners. Neither of them are happy about it, but things go from bad to worse when they accidentally activate a time machine and find themselves bouncing between different times and places in history. It turns out that the time machine is powered by information, specifically about recycling (WHAT ARE THE ODDS???) So Charlie and Oliver find themselves learning about different ways that people have helped the environment (recycling / upcycling / composting / etc.) or made it worse (inventing plastic and other non-biodegradable materials) over the course of human history. 

This book is both cute and smart, and one of its most appealing qualities is that it’s very informative without being preachy. Readers will learn about topics like broken pottery being used as building materials in ancient times, pigs that ate garbage in the streets of New York City in the 19th century, and even what all the recycling symbols and numbers mean on our modern-day containers!