The Green Girls

by Loïc Nicoloff, Antoine Losty (Illustrations)

Emma, Lily, and Fadila want to save the planet . . . but no one around them seems to care. Frustrated, they name themselves the Green Girls, take to social media, and launch a series of bold protests. Alongside their classmate and aspiring Green Girl Silas, the crew risks getting in trouble (and stirs some up) to raise awareness about container ship pollution, palm oil overproduction, and more environmental hazards. With a mix of livestreams, spray paint, and bungee cords, they're out to make a difference―and get their followers to do the same.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Middle Grade, Graphic Novels Comics, Comics

144 pages, Library Binding

Published March 7, 2023

Reviews

[Melanie Dulaney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings on this book:

Pros:
*realistic and eye-catching panels in this graphic novel
*fast paced, approachable reading for nearly all middle grade students
*depicts teens who feel passionately about affecting positive change in their world and presents them as capable of making a difference
*The narrative/story of the adventures of the Green Girls (and 1 guy who wants to be a part) is broken into segments with non-fiction information in the form of web articles on environmental concerns such as deforestation and various types of pollution, i.e. light, biofuels and even the use of air-conditioning and the specific harm of tossing cigarette butts to the ground.

Con:
*13 year olds are depicted lying to parents, sneaking out of their homes, defacing public property, entering restricted areas, traveling cross country alone and more.

While the balance seems to swing clearly to the side of the pros, buyers should be sure that the ways that the Green Girls (and 1 guy) attempt to facilitate change line up with the behaviors they hope to develop in their young people. Absolutely a book that many will be thrilled to add to their collections and just as many will decline to purchase.

Thanks for the print arc, Graphic Universe/Lerner Publishing Group.

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Very much idealized but a good introduction to environmental issues and protesting for kids.

[LN · Rating 3 out of 5]

Update: I am sorry. However, I must lower the rating of The Green Girls by Loïc Nicoloff et al. to four out of ten instead of five out of ten. Three stars are too many for this book, so two will do.







Representation: One Black character.
Trigger warnings: Death of a grandmother, grief and loss depiction.

The Green Girls, an illustrated novella by Loïc Nicoloff, Antoine Losty, Alberto Zanon and Roberta Pierpaoli, was disappointing.

It starts with the four protagonists: Emma, Fadila, Lily and Silas. They form a group called the Green Girls to protest against climate change.

The characters have some depth but are not that likeable. Their actions do not line up with their goals and ideals. They develop, but only briefly when they form the Green Girls and start protesting. Only then did they form a character dynamic with each other. Before, three characters started with no character dynamics, whereas one had a brief dynamic with her grandmother. Thus, most characters start with less development than others. They would be more likeable, but they are not due to the actions they did. Actions include being dishonest to parents, sneaking out and into restricted areas, travelling across the country alone and defacing city property.

In addition, the setting is in France, but the book does not explore unique features there. Instead, the setting is like any indistinguishable Western location.

The art is flawed with many issues. Some characters, such as Emma and Fadila, have wide, realistic and detailed eyes, with Emma's being almond-shaped and Fadila's being oval-shaped. Both have, brown irises and large, black pupils. In contrast, characters such as Lily and Silas have unrealistic and small black dots for eyes. Lily has glasses, but Silas only has eyes with no other features. Drawing two characters with detailed eyes and two others with basic versions is inconsistent.

The art is too inconsistent. There is only one, neutral, full-colour palette, which is not innovative. The authors drew the teeth simply as two white bands instead of drawing each one. Also, the font is too thin and light, making it challenging to read any text.

Additionally, the plot is easy to follow. However, some events, such as when the Green Girls leap down onto the stage using bungee cords to surprise a palm oil biofuel company speaker, are hard to believe, making it unrealistic. The pacing is too fast, 144 pages, making it difficult for readers to keep up, which risks overwhelming them. Also, the time between the group's formation and the final protest is too short. The book tries to slow its pacing with pages full of text walls drawn like fictional newspaper articles, but that defeats the purpose of an illustrated novella. Instead of slowing the pacing, it stops because there are no illustrations, and it takes longer to read a page full of text than pictures.

Furthermore, The Green Girls could have been intriguing but lost that value because there are other, more well executed novels about climate change.

Moreover, the plot flows entirely linearly, with nothing to disrupt that.

The tone and mood are energetic because the book tries to encourage readers to stop climate change. However, moments such as a grandmother's death juxtapose that and detract from the storyline.

The Green Girls explores its theme, climate change, somewhat well, but flawed advice from the group weakens its exploration.

Further issues arose with the execution of The Green Girls. Despite wanting to stop climate change, the Green Girls give hypocritical advice that contradicts their objective or causes more harms than benefits.

First, the group advises stopping experiments that kill mosquitoes. However, ending them would cause harm because mosquitoes can carry malaria, infect people and lead to deaths.

Second, they criticise palm oil biofuels. While not as environmentally friendly as renewables, they are better than fossil fuels. Speaking of, The Green Girls never mentions this energy, despite its central theme.

Third, the group sprayed paint on QR codes for e-scooters, even though they are electric public transport.

Fourth, they suggest opening the car window instead of turning on the air conditioner, or AC. Still, lowering it by two degrees or setting it to 24 would also help. Cars contribute to climate change because they emit carbon dioxide, or CO2, yet the book ignores that.

Fifth, the group tells readers to go on trains instead of planes, but that is impossible in some cases. For instance, a person wants to travel from New York to London. There is no train, so they must take a plane. If they cannot use a plane, they cannot get there. Trains are electric, but The Green Girls did not mention other transport, such as walking, biking or buses. Some planes are also electric, even though they are small experiments.

Sixth, the group recommends lowering video quality and unsubscribing from rarely checked or unchecked emails to save power. The email advice is outdated because many use social media, and the group's argument has weaknesses. If the email or video data centres are renewable-powered, they are decarbonised.

Seventh, the group criticises container ships, but if they are gone, and if they also dislike planes, cargo cannot travel.

Eighth, they focus on people throwing cigarette butts on the floor, which makes a trivial impact compared to fossil fuel companies. The single Black character, Fadila, is tokenistic.

Ninth, the climate change advice is all on the text wall pages like a heavy-handed lecture, as if the group is talking down to readers.

Tenth, the group's points and advice blame individuals for climate change and suggests individual actions instead of targeting fossil fuel companies. Fossil fuel companies contribute to climate change more than people. Thus, individual actions would not be that impactful. The Green Girls resemble Just Stop Oil, who protested disruptively against climate change but eventually irritated people and turned them away from their cause.

Ultimately, The Green Girls is not enjoyable due to its flaws.

Note: All degrees are in Celsius.

Click this link to find my sources.

Score: Four out of ten.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this one. I didn't want to give it a 2, but it's also not quite a 3 for me. The premise is great -- I picked up the book because it was a graphic novel about three tween girls (and one boy) who want to take action to address climate change. I've been looking for books that engage with climate change as a systemic problem and in which kids work together to make or advocate for change. That happens here. The GN is actually full of useful information about all kinds of environmental hazards.

My issues, though, are layered. The actions the girls take seem unlikely, and while their concerns felt genuine, their behavior is often rash (and rude) and more about getting them social media visibility than actually changing hearts, minds, and systems. The budding crush between one of the girls and the boy in the story also felt unnecessary. I get that this is a middle grade book, but ending the book with romantic glances between the two ultimately undercut the book's larger, more important message about environmental harm. I also didn't care for the art. I didn't find myself lingering in or appreciating the detail in the drawings the way I typically do.

So, meh. I'm glad this is out there in the world, but I'll likely give this one away rather than keep it and recommend it to my students.

[Ag · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually liked this book a lot! Enjoyed it very, very much! I had heard of other reviewers who thought that maybe you should think twice before just handing this book over to your kid, but I disagree. I think this book is great. Yes, it will raise some questions. Yes, it might make your child think about issues you yourself are not thinking about and maybe do not want to think about. Yup. If that is an issue for you, then, well, yes, do think twice. If you are ready to talk more about saving the planet and seeing if there is anything, anything at all you and your family can do, then yes, do give this book to your kids.
Also, be prepared to talk about how and why some people happen to be blatantly ignorant, and some are even proud of being that way.
What I liked about this book just as well as the message: the Manga-style drawings, especially facial expressions. It is like Manga, just in a very clean way.
My tween read it also and she says he liked it a lot, she said she would like to read more from the same author.

[Martha Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable middle grade graphic novel with a very serious mission, to raise our awareness of things that we do unthinkingly that hurt the environment. Three girlfriends plus a tagalong guy, all from Grenoble, France, form "the Green Girls," an activist group that stages big instagram disruptions to factories that use palm oil and ships that pollute the ocean. Interspersed in the story are longer position papers that tackle a multitude of issues: the ecological impact of airplane travel or discarding cigarette butts and much more.

The main character is white and gets the majority of the plot points; she also gets very very lucky with the juvenile justice judge. Still, an enjoyable read about a crucial topic, with some representation. The book makes helping the earth a cool part of a fun young person's life.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Translated from French, THE GREEN GIRLS is a middle grade graphic novel about four friends who are tired of having people around them reject their efforts to improve the planet. To gain attention of classmates and the general public, THE GREEN GIRLS take their projects to the extreme to create filmable public disruption. As their new tactics go viral, they find classmates and adults start listening.

This fictional graphic novel is interspersed with news articles and infographics that explain the specifics of the climate issues discussed. Youth passionate for the environment will appreciate the characters' creativity and tenacity. Others may be inspired to learn more about the climate impacts of corporations and travel.

[Jodie Chapdelaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is about three girls and one boy who are frustrated with adults not listening to them or taking them seriously when it comes to saving our planet. They come up with big ways to get the word out and to as many people as they can about how we are destroying our planet. I love this graphic novel. The information in this book about the ways we are hurting the planet and the living things on it, is great and I didn't even know about some of them.
Win, graphic novel kids love. Win, talks about how we are hurting our planet and the living things on it. Win, talks about ways to help our planet. I am hoping there will be back matter so kids can find more information on how to help the planet and the living things on it. Thank you for allowing me to read your book.

[DeAnne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

I enjoyed the overall premise of this book, it's a great subject to explore to encourage kids/teens to make a change in the world and stand up for causes they care about; however, I did take some issues with some of the methods the teens used in the story to achieve their goals. Sure, when you're doing activism of any kind there is the possibility that you'll cross some lines for the cause, but I'm not sure some of their actions should be presented as acceptable such as lying and vandalism.

That aside, I really enjoyed the art, story and characters overall. It was a quick and enjoyable read about sparking the idea of activism and taking action to stand up for what you believe.

[Ellon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars (I liked it)

I have some mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I really appreciate the information about ways we can help change the destruction happening to our environment. I also found the story is be fast paced.

My main con was that delivery of information in the form of newspaper articles. Talk about info-dumping. They really messed with the flow. Also, I wasn't a huge fan of the lying that the girls did and the risky situations they put themselves in.

This definitely won't be a purchase for my school library as I think it's more for a middle school or high school demographic.

[Megan Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was GREAT. I learned SO MUCH and I know other readers will learn a lot too! There are ways WE can make a difference every day. We don’t have to do giant protests, but we can cut down on air conditioning and using certain types of oils and ALWAYS remember to never litter. I thought this was so amazing. I love the power of protest and wanting to protect the planet!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An important message and story that will hopefully encourage teens to get active and trying to save our environment. I didn't always love the dialogue (but that might be the translation). The full page articles are informative, but a bit overwhelming and pull you out of the story.

[D.T. Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the insight on some lesser-known environmental issues, but the Green Girls got away with a lot. Emma waved around her father's status as a trump card. For young readers, they should understand pulling some of the (well-meaning) stunts the girls did will not pan out the same for them.

[Aurora]

DNF’d 30 pages in. Story and characters were ridiculous & annoying.

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of environmental topics touched. The kids protesting goes a little beyond realistic being a bunch of 13 year olds. Some people will still really enjoy this graphic novel read.

[TheNextGenLibrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this cli-fi MG graphic novel about girls wanting to save our planet. The illustrations were awesome!