January 15, 2022
A board-book primer outlines simple steps for changing environmental culture for the better. On the opening double-page spread, the book gets straight to the pith of the matter, stating the first small but powerful habit that people can cultivate on a daily basis in order to protect and help heal the environment: "Change starts with...planting trees." With just one sentence per double-page spread, the text goes on to present 11 more eco-friendly choices that readers can make. Most preschool-aged children will find some of the actions easily understandable, such as turning off the tap to save water and picking up litter. Other action items, like "saving power" (the artwork shows a brown-skinned caregiver hanging laundry on a clothesline as a brown-skinned boy clad in a superhero getup looks on) and "ditching the car" (in the accompanying illustration, a White adult and a group of children--three White, one brown-skinned--ride bicycles and a scooter), are not as accessible. As such, children will need adult scaffolding in order to grasp some of the ideas. The text's use of anaphoric repetition creates emphasis and memorability. Beer's cartoony digital illustrations are cheerful, busy, and colorful with a flat-planed, childlike look. They depict many different children with various skin tones and hair textures in settings that range from the beach and a garden to an animal farm and a farmers market. A clarion call for individual agency in protecting the environment that's suitable for the preschool set. (Board book. 0-3)
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April 1, 2022
PreS-Illuminated by a bright, bold color scheme, carefully crafted scenes reveal sensible good habits, like conserving water and reducing waste, that can help save the planet. Beer, creator of Love Makes a Family, depicts diverse illustrated young characters to show how all may do their part to enact positive change. VERDICT All children will see themselves in these pages, and feel a bit more empowered to make better choices.
Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
April 1, 2020
This brightly coloured and accessible book sets out to empower young children and familiarise them with ways in which even the littlest of us can have an impact our world. As young environmental activists around the globe have recently shown, there is power in knowledge and in having a voice. This book, which sits well within Sophie Beer’s oeuvre, engenders in very young children the idea that our choices and actions are important and have consequences. Appropriately targeted to young readers (its board book format inclines it towards the younger end of its intended 3+ audience), there is no representation of fear, gloom, or the costs of not making change. Rather, the world presented is a vibrant, sunny, inclusive, optimistic one where children cheerfully take part in the many activities that can lead to change (saving water, eating less meat, ‘ditching the car’). Beer’s simple text is supported by her distinctive illustrations—clean-edged, full of perky colours and shapes, and filled with small details that should keep older children engaged. On some pages the details become a little busy and distract from the central message, but maybe that’s OK, since an overly didactic approach is rarely a successful one.
Anica Boulanger-Mashberg is a freelance editor, writer and reviewer, and has worked as a bookseller at The Hobart Bookshop for over 10 years