GIFTS FROM THE GARBAGE TRUCK shares the true story of NYC sanitation worker Nelson Molina. As a child growing up in NYC, he would find discarded items and fix them up, then share them with others to spread joy. As an adult he continued to find beauty in things that others had discarded, saving items found when collecting trash, eventually leading to curating the found items for display in a museum dedicated to his finds. Beautiful illustrations bring Nelson’s journey to life, showing the vibrancy of his New York City community. This book is a great resource for helping young readers build awareness of the vast number of items that are tossed aside and developing an understanding of how reusing or repurposing items can make an impact.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sharing an eARC of the book with me.

I enjoyed reading this book with the kids. We are already a trash to treasure family and it was fun to see what we do from the eyes of a garbage truck.

Gifts from the Garbage Truck tells the story of Nelson Molina, a New York garbage collector who has been picking things out of the trash since childhood to repair and curated a museum of things people threw in the garbage. It's a nice uplifting story about the ways we can repair or upcycle things to get more use out of them rather than throwing them in the trash. The story is straightforward and the illustrations are cute. It's worth a read in discussions about reducing, reusing, and recycling.

Gifts from the Garbage Truck by Andrew Larsen is a well written and illustrated story about Nelson Molina, a garbage man who recycles items he finds at work and makes a museum of the ones he repairs and saves. This would be an excellent book to encourage children to reuse and recycle items.

Gifts from the Garbage Truck is wonderfully thought provoking as it makes us question what we throw away. Nelson Molina's actions to save "trash" and transform it is inspiring. My students love picture books that are true, and this one also carries important messages of conservation, caring for our environment and being creative with lovely illustrations to bring it all to life.

What a lovely book based on a true story. I loved how there were treasures found in the trash and that they were saved, but I don't love that they only live in a museum now. I wish some had been reused. I wanted more story about reusing the trash.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. These opinions are completely my own.


Gifts from the Garbage Truck is an inspiring book that makes you want to do better for our planet. It is also a wonderful book to lesson plan around as it can be used in multiple subjects such as art and science. Wonderful book about a thoughtful man.

As a child, Nelson Molina collected, repaired and gifted thrown away treasures. In his 34 years as a NYC sanitation worker in his childhood neighborhood of El Barrio, Molina continued his practice of finding beauty, looking for value and sharing his discoveries. His collection, which now forms a museum, inspires, reminding readers to reduce, reuse and recycle. Beautiful, digital art, mimics print-making techniques. Layers of subtle color, strong shapes and textured imperfections are set off by luminous light that reinforces the message of discovering the sublime within the gritty. Molina is ethnically Puerto Rican and his neighborhood is diverse. An author’s note includes biographical details, photographs and guidance on recycling. A good read aloud to encourage recycling. Pair with The Dumpster Diver by Wong (Candelwick, 2007) to inspire an upcycling activity. Thanks to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy in return for an unbiased review.

In a throw-away society, one human made a difference. Saving and salvaging usable items that would have otherwise ended up discarded and in the landfill, the story of Nelson Molina will hopefully inspire others to look at things twice to see if they have a second life before tossing them aside. From the artwork to the characters, the story and the message, this book should be in every library and enjoyed by many, many families.

✨Book Review✨
🗑️🚛Gifts from the Garbage Truck: A True Story About the Things We (Don’t) Throw Away 🚛🗑️

Synopsis:
A picture book about the things we throw away, and why they might be worth keeping. This is about a man named Nelson Molina and his quest as a former employee for the New York City Sanitation Department to turn trash into treasure.

My thoughts:
🤔 I think this book will chellange children to think about what they throw away and inspire them to create new things about what may be discarded.
🤔 Gifts from the Garbage Truck is sure to spark great discussions and ideas. It is perfect for Earth Day and every day!
🤔 I really liked the real-life color photos of Nelson Molina and his treasures in the back of the book.
🤔 The illustrations are attractive and fit the text and the mood perfectly!

Who is going to love it? Children who love….
❤ Exploring the potential in what we discard
❤️ Learning about reducing, reusing, recycling, and rethinking
❤️ Nonfiction picture books about real-life everyday heroes
❤️ Garbage Trucks!

📢This one releases September 3, 2024! You can preorder now!

🥰Thank you to @Sourcebookskids and @NetGalley for this gifted eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Gifts from the Garbage Truck is a beautiful true story about Nelson and all the treasures he discovered in other people's trash, showing how one person's trash can be another person's treasure. It offers examples of how you can reuse certain objects. This important message inspires us to think about the things we throw away and motivates us to reduce, reuse, recycle, and rethink. It is an important and beautifully illustrated picture book.

This was a sweet & inspiring story to reduce, reuse, recycle...and repair! As a Creation conservationist Momma, I appreciate books like this to further instill helpful habits in taking care of the world God has given us, loving others in the process.

I received a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I started off thinking this was a fun truck book for kids. It was much more than that. There were trucks, enough to please any young reader, but the story focused on our disposable society and the problem of tossing rather than repairing worn-out items. Our story begins with our trashman hero repairing a broken truck for his younger sibling and turns into a hopeful look at saving items from his daily trash pickups to repurpose. Gathered in a museum, these items give visitors a look at our disposable society in hopes they will think twice before tossing an item out and take up the challenge to reuse and repurpose what might have been trash.

Fantastic book about a sanitation worker, Nelson Monila and how he saved items from the garbage.
The illustrations are terrifically good, the content is informative and the narrative is seamless and inspirational.

This is how much one person can MAKE A DIFFERENCE even though it seems like nothing when it started.

Thank you, SOURCEBOOKS KIDS, for the advance reading copy.

Based on the outstanding work of a former employee at New York City Sanitation Department, Nelson Monila “saved” so many reusable items of all kinds which people have thrown away as trash.

Now the repaired/recycled items have found their place in his museum “Treasures in the Trash” which the book includes real pictures towards the end.

I absolutely love this book and I do feel this book will surely encourage the kids to not throw away things just like that, learn to reuse and recycle, think twice before buying.

Perfection!

Firstly, I would like to thank Sourcebooks Kids for providing me with an ARC of this nonfiction picture book.

"Gifts from the Garbage Truck: A True Story About the Things We (Don't) Throw Away" tells the story of Nelson Molina, a New York sanitation worker who spent his life saving things from the trash.

As important as the message is of this book is, it is the artwork by Oriol Vidal is really what makes this book special. My favourite illustration is of the garbage truck on the streets of New York during a rainy day. I can't believe that only received a quarter page. I would hang a full sized version of that on my wall if I had the space!

There are multiple curriculum connections that can be made with this book and as a teacher-librarian I can assure you that this book would be a welcome addition in any school library. I would definitely recommend it.

Thank you SOURCEBOOKS Kids, Sourcebooks Explore, and NetGalley for the advanced electronic review copy of this delightful book. This wonderful picture book is about the things we do and don’t throw away and a wonderful person, Nelson Molina, who made a museum out of the things people threw away. It’s an excellent addition to a unit on recycling and even has ideas at the end of the book on how to reuse and rethink the usage of things in different ways. Educators in NYC may consider a field trip to Nelson’s museum after reading the book as it beautifully ties into the recycling unit.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book on a variety of levels. First off, I can't recall another book about a garbage collector. Secondly, this book will lend itself well to discussions, booktalks, and even programming.

A very inspiring and beautifully illustrated story of one man's unique perspective on "stuff" and how his job as a garbage man taught people to be more cautious of what they throw away. This was a really cute and thought provoking picture book. I really enjoyed it.

I think that there was a really good idea here, it just fell short for me. It's great that this book encourages kids to think about reducing waste and recycling items that can be useful again. Although, I think that, due to the way this story was painted, it could potentially cause some hoarding tendencies in young readers. It needs to be clear that not *everything* can be saved from the trash, and that certain, actually useful things should be upcycled. On top of that, (even though this is based on a true story) the author should also clarify that there's a difference between taking things from the trash and using them for a new purpose vs. just having these items sit and collect dust.
However, there were two other things I liked about this book. The illustrations were really beautiful and complemented the story perfectly. The illustrator played with depth, time, and light flawlessly and it added a lot of personality to the book. Lastly, the way the author wrote this story was good, both in plot and writing style. It is perfectly age-appropriate and kids will have a fun time reading this book...as long as they get past obsessive trash collecting.