Climate Change and How We'll Fix It: The Real Problem and What We Can Do to Fix It

by Alice Harman, Andrés Lozano (Illustrator)

Children why aren’t adults doing more about climate change? This clear, to-the-point, and fully illustrated guide answers kids’ questions—and shows how they can play an important role in solving the problem.  
 
Some of the most renowned climate activists—including Greta Thunberg—are children and teens, for they are the ones who will inherit the planet and its problems. This important guide enlightens kids about why climate change is real, why it’s serious, what’s causing it, and how we can fix it. It explains why grownups aren’t doing enough, why one group of people alone can’t solve it, and what the roadblocks are, from wealth disparity to our dependence on air travel. Using brief, focused text, every colorfully illustrated page presents the debate surrounding the crucial issues; dialogue balloons, bursts, and problem boxes help make the climate crisis more understandable to young people so they can become problem solvers and leaders in creating a better world.

64 pages, Hardcover

Published March 2, 2021

About the author

Alice Harman is an experienced author and editor, specialising in children's books. She has written more than forty books for children, about everything from art to outer space. She has also edited and contributed to many other books for children, young people and adults.

Reviews

[Tonja Drecker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title creates the perfect starting pad for this book, which launches into the heart and soul of climate change and what possible affects it might have as well as practical solutions.

The theme of this book is clear, and every page stays centered in this direction, never steering away. And it's a packed book on top of that. While it's a picture book...sort of...it's definitely not for younger readers but works better for those nearing middle grade or sitting right in that audience level. The books starts out with a table of contents before heading into an introduction. From there, the various points are addressed and glide along until the end, where readers are given simple and practical ways that they themselves can do.

The illustrations in this one are bright, lively, and mix right along with the text, which makes it much more digestible for the intended audience because this book is filled to the gills with arguments, points, and information. While this is a great read for those wanting to explore climate change with that age group, it's the illustrations which keep it light enough not to scare readers away.

The arguments are laid out in a logical pattern, and thanks to the table of contents, easy to find and explore. I really enjoy the fact that it starts out with the problems, goes through what is being done/not being done, and then hits solutions...ones kids can use and not simply things which are out of their reach. There is a bit of repetition as the arguments continue on, unfortunately.

That said, for those interested in bringing across this theme in a rounded way are going to enjoy this one quite a bit.
I received an ARC and found this to be well done.

[N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5 - I’ve read quite a few books about climate change but this children’s book is one of the clearest, most easily comprehensible books I’ve read. I know quite a few adults who could stand to read it. Having said that, it gets a little repetitive in the latter half and I thought the fictional conversations were a tiny bit more complex than the text. Still, an excellent primer about climate change: what it is, how scientists know it’s not normal, why progress in reversing it has been slow and what readers can do to help bring about change. Also contains a very nice glossary.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Climate change explained in a fairly simple, but complete terms. Offered solutions, good ones; but felt like a few more specific ideas would have been helpful.