Learning about climate change can arouse all kinds of feelings, but there are ways to cope with them and to use them productively.
A therapist experienced in the field of climate psychology offers tween and teen readers a combination of climate change facts and coping tools. She provides solid information about what we now know about climate change, its causes and consequences, and how we’ve learned that, interspersing her explanations with self-help suggestions. She encourages readers to identify their own values, think about how these values can help them face the challenges of a changing world, and develop their own climate action plan. Each of the five chapters includes one or more examples of a teen or teen group that has been active in a variety of climate issues. Each includes numerous exercises designed to help kids recognize their feelings and “build emotional resilience”; these include rating the strengths of their feelings, creating snow globe–like “mindfulness jars,” and civic engagement. Concepts like eco-grief, systemic racism, negativity bias, and window of tolerance are set in boldface and defined both in context and in a helpful glossary, but there’s no index. The writer’s assumption is that learning about climate change might make her readers feel frightened, sad, nervous, or angry and that climate injustice is unfair. She encourages them to recognize and act on these feelings, but she does not acknowledge that they might encounter people who disagree with them. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An interesting and unusual approach to eco-awareness for tweens and teens. (note for caregivers, directory of climate-aware therapists, acknowledgments, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 11-16)Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4338-3391-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Magination/American Psychological Association
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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With an amped-up sense of wonder, the Science Guy surveys the natural universe.
Starting from first principles like the scientific method, Nye and his co-author marvel at the “Amazing Machine” that is the human body then go on to talk up animals, plants, evolution, physics and chemistry, the quantum realm, geophysics, and climate change. They next venture out into the solar system and beyond. Along with tallying select aspects and discoveries in each chapter, the authors gather up “Massively Important” central concepts, send shoutouts to underrecognized women scientists like oceanographer Marie Tharp, and slip in directions for homespun experiments and demonstrations. They also challenge readers to ponder still-unsolved scientific posers and intersperse rousing quotes from working scientists about how exciting and wide open their respective fields are. If a few of those fields, like the fungal kingdom, get short shrift (one spare paragraph notwithstanding), readers are urged often enough to go look things up for themselves to kindle a compensatory habit. Aside from posed photos of Nye and a few more of children (mostly presenting as White) doing science-y things, the full-color graphic and photographic images not only reflect the overall “get this!” tone but consistently enrich the flow of facts and reflections. “Our universe is a strange and surprising place,” Nye writes. “Stay curious.” Words to live by.
Wordplay and wry wit put extra fun into a trove of fundamental knowledge. (contributors, art credits, selected bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 11-15)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4676-5
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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BOOK REVIEW
A compendium of all things oceanic, from surface to depths, covering biology, geology, coasts, climatic phenomena, and human use and abuse.
Considering the size of the general topic, the coverage isn’t as shallow as it might be. Hundreds of crisply professional nature photos and big, easy-to-follow charts and diagrams anchor waves of densely packed but often breezy commentary (“Many parrotfish species also make their own sleeping bags at night—out of mucus!”) that Wilsdon pours in beneath such headers as “It’s a Shore Thing” and “Belize It or Not!” Overviews of each ocean, of plate tectonics, the action and effects of ocean currents, worldwide climate change, and physical features from islands to abyssal plains sail by in succession, but marine biology takes pride of place with page after page of photogenic sea life from tiny krill on up to whales and polar bears. The author profiles a marine ecologist and interviews an oceanographer to cap chapters on modern research, exploration, and industries, then closes with generous lists of sites to visit physically or virtually.
A stimulating plunge for casual browsers and serious students alike. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4263-2550-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: National Geographic Kids
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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