Gifts from the Garbage Truck: A True Story About the Things We (Don’t) Throw Away by Andrew Larsen. Foreword by Nelson Molina. Illustrated by Oriol Vidal. Sourcebooks, 2024.

I have mixed feelings about this picture book biography of sanitation worker, Nelson Molina, a collector of throwaway items. I liked the basic story of Mr. Molina and his Treasures in the Trash Museum. Stories about ordinary people who have extraordinary hobbies and adventures are the best. The letter at the beginning of the book, written by Nelson Molina himself, was great. In fact, that letter, in which Mr. Molina tells about how he came to be a collector, reuser, recycler, and up-cycler of other people’s trash, could have been a much better text for the picture book.

Instead, author Andrew Larson retells Nelson Molina’s story, and the text is rather pedestrian. In addition, the illustrations are flat and uninteresting.

“Nelson Molina collected things. He collected all kinds of things.”

“Nelson brought the objects he found back to the sanitation garage. He displayed them in the locker room so everyone at work could see them. There were toys and teapots. Yo-yos and photos. There were knick-knacks and thingamajigs and whatchamacallits. People throw away the most extraordinary things.”

Then, at the end of the story, someone decided to add a didactic and unnecessary information page that reiterates what the story has been telling us, in case we’re too dense to get it. “The 4 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rethink”–with a definition and explanation for each “R” as well as ideas about how to up-cycle junk that’s headed for the garbage truck.

I was fascinated by Nelson Molina’s story of collecting, repairing, and recycling things from the New York City garbage. It reminded me a little bit of my work, rescuing books. But I wish Mr. Molina could have had a better picture book profile. And a few more photographs of the whatchamacallits and thingamajigs in the museum would have been nice. (There are a few photos in the back of the book.)

This picture book is worth checking out from the library just because of the story. But one time through the book should be enough for most kids and grownups, too.