Review By CAROLYN M. MULLIN

The Curse of Akkad may seem like an ancient Egyptian legend, but it reflects the demise of another of the world’s greatest civilizations; the first one in fact, dating some 4,000 years ago. Due largely to changes in weather, this Mesopotamian city dissolved following a severe drought that eventually turned the land into a literal dust bowl. This one case is a classic example of the many so vividly described in Peter Christie’s book.

Droughts, flooding, changing sunspots, volcanic eruptions, and dramatic fluctuations in temperature are credited (at least partially) for the downfalls of Mongolian (1332), Peruvian (750), Native American (1130), and an astounding number of other societies. Christie makes this a stimulating historical journey by adding in anecdotal examples of what transpired during these trying times, some even a bit gothic: driven by desperation during Europe’s Little Ice Age, grave robbers devoured the brains of those they came across. He also recounts fascinating tidbits on how these life- and planet-changing events influenced art, war, literature, and music in sidebars, which are illustrated with photographs and paintings or maps.

Overall, this is an attention-grabbing piece of nonfiction that will hit home hard the urgency in reducing our personal contributions to global warming (read: less TV, more bike riding). Our current climate change is on a different scale than anything humans have seen before and Christie makes that very clear.

Ages 10+.

Review By CAROLYN M. MULLIN

When I was a kid, I had no idea what the Silk Road was, much less the dramatic impact animals have had in shaping our world. In Animals that Changed the World, author Keltie Thomas brings to life not only the ancient travels along the Silk Road and other historical mile markers, but the legacies of 20+ animals, starting with animals raised for food and fibers. One example is the invention of spinning machines and automated looms created from necessity in the production of wool which in turned helped spawn the Industrial Revolution. For a Vegbooks selection, this didn’t seem like a promising start, but I was impressed with her statement on cattle contributing to climate change, “Not only do cattle and other livestock add to global warming, but they also take up nearly one-third of all the world’s land for grazing and growing livestock feed. The situation isn’t ‘udderly’ hopeless, though. We can still cut down livestock emissions and land use by simply eating less meat.” Next to these words are images of a veggie and a fruit burger. She makes a few other ethical references in the text too.

Thomas covers a quite a bit of ground in 112 pages: discussing elephants that plowed fields in Germany or helped with WWII efforts and mosquitoes that killed Alexander the Great and shut down work on the Panama Canal. Readers will be fascinated and at times saddened (guinea pigs as lab rats, beavers killed for pelts) by what they discover. But for any animal lover, it’s important to know what I call “our shared experience” or history, so that we can make our future a brighter one.

Animals that Changed the World is a condensed, but brightly designed text with engaging, pun-filled script and colorful photographs and design work. The sidebars help to keep this a dynamic, well-rounded book. “Mug Shots” brief the reader on a species’ nickname, domestication date, population numbers, habitat, and claim to fame. “Speak of the Beast” explains how animal-inspired idioms and phrases like “jumping through hoops” or “worming your way into…” came to be. “Fact Track” provides quick, interesting tidbits: “The Chinese invented fish farming 3,000 years ago. They kept carp in ponds and fed the fish waste from silkworms.”

This text is a fun way to learn about a sometimes difficult subject.

Ages 9-12.

Review By JENNIFER GANNETT

Working through complicated problems calls for complex discussions and Al Gore’s Our Choice: Young Readers Edition is rich with challenging topics and potential solutions based on the myriad of issues presented by our changing climate.  The bad news? The book is dense and busy.  The good news?  After describing specific challenges, each chapter presents concrete possibilities for positive change.  The information is relevant and up-to-date, though of course not all of the solutions are without controversy.  Ethanol, geothermal technology, population growth, coal use, solar and wind power and super grids are just some of the subjects addressed in this book.

Citing cigarette smoking’s drastic decline in popularity as an example of how humans can change their entrenched habits, this book contains comprehensive information to guide both children and adults on our way, but more importantly, it gives us optimism for the future.

Appropriate for ages 8 and up, though it is possible that younger children may be interested in the information as well if presented in small bites.

Review By JENNIFER GANNETT

Jean Craighead George and Wendell Minor, the team responsible for The Wolves Are Back, bring us an Arctic tale.  The Last Polar Bear focuses upon young Tigluk, who encounters a polar bear in his Arctic village.  Ignoring the warnings of the adult villagers, Tigluk has a close encounter with the bear, named Nanuq.  Realizing he has received an important message from her, Tigluk and his grandmother work together to mend a family boat and voyage north in the Arctic Ocean.  After paddling for days, they find an abandoned polar bear cub on an ice floe.  They know that he is Nanuq’s cub, the last polar bear, and gather him into their kayak to bring him home and care for him in the warming world.

The book is peppered with references to the obvious consequences of climate change that Tigluk and his fellow villagers observe, including the fact that there are fewer ice floes than there once were.  As Tigluk and his Aka discuss, no more ice floes means no more Nanuqs.

Of course this story’s trajectory is in some ways far-fetched — but that is nothing new in the realm of children’s literature.  What is striking, though, is the undercurrent of sadness that runs through the book.  While the imagined ending is a fortuitous one for the individual cub, the events chronicled are markers of some deeply distressing events in our world.  This book is especially timely right now, given some of the recent decisions in the United States regarding the status of polar bears and their habitat.

Parents and caregivers may want to know that there are multiple references to items made from sealskin, and Tigluk and Aka wear fur-lined coats throughout the course of the book.  These illustrations and references may open the door to discussions about the relationships that native tribes have (and have had) with animals.

This book is for ages 5 and up, though sensitive children (or their parents) may find the subject matter difficult.  Learn more about the book and see some of the beautiful illustrations by checking out this interview with Wendell Minor.

Review By CAROLYN M. MULLIN

Dr. Isabel “Izzy” Soto, respected historian, anthropologist and colleague of Max Axiom, makes a strong, female lead in her series of graphic-like novels that span the subject matter gamut: investigations into the paranormal, historical events, and other research undertakings. Utilizing a special stone found in Thailand, Izzy is able to travel through space and time to get a well-rounded, multiperspective take on her current area of study.

The Global Warming issue is not only timely, but full of adventure. While on a special mission in Antarctica, the good doctor finds herself perilously poised atop a broken piece of an ice sheet. Employing the stone, she transports herself to Greenland – in the nick of time – where she reunites with fellow climate change researchers. As the story progresses, readers are exposed to the theoretical hypotheses scientists of yesteryear held in regards to climate change, most noting it was for the better: warmer weather = better farming opportunities; less harsh winters. All this is done through first hand interviews Izzy conducts with scientists Jean Baptist Joseph Fourier (1800’s), John Tyndall, and Svante Arrhenius (1896).

Dr. Soto also looks into the demand for and consequences of fossil fuel usage and sums up our current state, with the development of the UN Conference on the Human Environment (1972), the first World Climate Conference (1979), and the 1990 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. She makes it a more personal, touching issue through a meet and greet with the Shishmaref Village near the Arctic Circle, where homes are crumbling due to thawing ice and erosion and the salmon population is dwindling due to warmer water.

Overall, a great series.

Ages 9-12.

Review By JESSICA ALMY

Climate change is not just a difficult problem, but difficult to understand as well. Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen attempt to make the causes and effects of global warming accessible to children in The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge. I have to admit that after reading this book, my daughter’s understanding of climate change, to the extent she has one at all, is a vague sense that pollution changes weather in a bad way – but I’m hopeful that she will come to understand this important issue with time.

The method in the Magic School Bus madness is making science into an adventure. This installment allows children to imagine becoming the sun’s rays caught in an endless return loop, bouncing off the earth and then back off the greenhouse gasses again. In the end, the children stage a play about climate change, attracting the attention of the local media and even the mayor. Interspersed throughout the zany plot are sidebars that flesh out the details for older readers.

My only disappointment with this book is its emphasis on alternative energy as a solution to climate change. Not only do I keep seeing a bird instead of the Magic School Bus above the hillside filled with wind turbines, but I’m also concerned that children can’t do a heck of a lot about alternative energy. Even if it is an important part of the solution, why focus on something that kids don’t have much say over?

Vegetarian and vegan kids will appreciate a reminder (absent from this book) that their lifestyle helps reduce greenhouse gasses, and they can learn from the sidebars at the back of the book that inform them that kids can help the earth by recycling, using cloth bags, and buying things with less packaging.

Ages 5-8.

Review By

Once I Was a Cardboard Box … But Now I’m a Book About Polar Bears! is a clever book designed not only to inform children about the biology and status of polar bears but also give them a detailed look at what happens to some of our cardboard when it enters the recycling stream. The book itself, as the title proclaims, is made from recycled cardboard and the lack of plastic laminate gives it extra green cred (the heavy duty cardboard cover has held up perfectly well).

Each page of the book contains dual information: the main text is about polar bears and detailed sidebars discuss paper recycling. I found the information on the recycling especially interesting. The illustrations and graphics are bright and appealing. China plays a fairly significant role in the box-to-book portion of the book– a good way to discuss with your children issues such as the role that China plays as our trading partner, consumerism and how resource intensive even recycling can be (think multiple trans-Pacific voyages via container ship). We sometimes read the stories individually (first the polar bears, then the recyling) but we often mix the two.

The end of the book ties together the relationship between polar bears, global warming and recycling. The final page contains suggestions for steps that the entire family can take to slow climate change. If your family is interested in talking more about recycling, the EPA has developed a game called Recycle City, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has a kid-friendly page with many links.

This book is great for kiddos ages 4 and up.

Review By

This little book by Lara Bergen and Vincent Nguyen introduces kids to the concept of climate change.

When a little girl from the Arctic takes a canoe ride with her father, they spy two polar bear cubs alone on the ice. This provides an opportunity for the father to explain to his daughter how climate change is melting the sea ice. The two worry about the cubs until their mother comes to rescue them. Ms. Bergen explains that not all polar bears are so lucky, and the book ends with tips for ways that kids can help prevent climate change.

While there isn’t a whole lot of storyline here — most of the book is spent explaining climate change — readers will delight in Mr. Nguyen’s illustrations. Environmentally oriented parents will also appreciate the practical tips for eco-conscious living and the fact that the book is printed on recycled paper. Parents concerned with animal rights, however, should note that dog sledding is portrayed in a positive light.

Ages 4-8.

Review By JENNIFER GANNETT

With Hug Time, Patrick McDonnell, longtime cartoonist and creator of “Mutts” (as well as the artist behind New Jersey’s animal friendly license plate), has crafted another winner. The sweet rhyming cadence and nicely balanced illustrations happily hook adults and children as they follow Jules the Kitten. Jules is feeling a little down about the state of global affairs and has come up with a solution: to hug the whole world. Caregivers of young children can probably relate to Doozy as she helps Jules with his sweater and asks, “hug the whole world, will that make it better?” Jules answers in the affirmative (ah! the certainty of the very young!) and sets out.

Along the way, there are allusions to various environmental themes as we follow Jules through the world and he experiences finding (and hugging) charismatic mega-fauna and lesser-known species as well. A nod to climate change and its impact on polar bears makes its way into the end of the story but before the plot becomes too heavy, we are reminded that change begins with our actions at home, sometimes with just one hug.

An adorable book to share with huggable folks ages 3 and up.

Review By MARSHA RAKESTRAW

Pictures of polar bears clinging to small bits of ice have been a primary rallying symbol for the fight to stop global climate change. In Winston of Churchill: One Bear’s Battle Against Global Warming, the bears take matters into their own paws, thanks to the courage and foresight of Winston, who leads the bears in a campaign to defend their ice-dependent homes. Since people are the primary cause of global warming, Winston mobilizes the bears to protest in front of the tourists (complete with signs and chants) to make them aware of how their destructive actions are melting the ice and destroying the bears’ land.

Winston of Churchill is a fun, playful way to introduce kids to the issue of global warming, the importance of personal responsibility (Winston’s wife points out that his cigar pollutes, too), and the power of taking positive, peaceful action. Although the quotes and references to the World War II leader will be lost on kids, parents may appreciate them. Great for sparking age-appropriate discussion about an important topic that affects everyone.

Ages 5-9.