Follow Your Stuff: Who Makes It, Where Does It Come From, How Does It Get to You?

Gr 5–8—This book charts the global production chain (resources and costs and labor) for four goods: T-shirts, prescription medications like inhalers, books, and cell phones. In the description of what it takes to make a T-shirt, there is a page detailing the raw materials and another about the logo. A third describes how a shop owner decides how much profit is needed. The narrative spells out the steps completely; however, the discussions following each section are detailed but not in-depth. The tradeoff is that some essential issues (such as precious metals in cell phones, with the associated geopolitics) are identified but not explained. The text is conversational and there are clip art-type illustrations to enhance the layout. The calculations are easy to follow and generally provide a good sense of how many things come together to make everyday items. This slim volume provides an ideal starting place for a project and would appeal to students highly motivated to understand the origins of common items and what it takes to produce them. A more general, multimedia treatment of this topic is Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff and its variants.