An interesting and unusual approach to eco-awareness for tweens and teens.
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 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
As in their previous collaborations (Colors of Freedom, Voices of Rape, not reviewed), Bode and Mack portray an issue through the voices of children and adults affected by it. Bode (recently deceased) interviewed preteens, their parents, and adult experts, and organized their responses into parts "For Girls and Boys" and "For Parents." In sections with titles like "Public Recognition" or "What's in Your Heart," her text, addressed directly to the reader, synthesizes many of the responses in a way that should comfort and challenge young and adult readers. At least half of the book is comprised of responses she gathered from her survey, some of which are illustrated in strips by Mack. The result is an engagingly designed book, with questions and topics in bold type so that readers can browse for the recognition they may be looking for. They will need to browse, as there is no index, and young readers will certainly be tempted by the "For Parents" section, and vice versa. A bibliography (with two Spanish titles) and list of Web resources (with mostly live links) will help them seek out more information. They may well have other questions—especially having to do with parents' sexuality—which they don't find answered here, but this is a fine and encouraging place to start. (print and on-line resources) (Non-fiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-81945-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
In this glossy photo essay, the author briefly recounts the study and exploration of the moon, beginning with Stonehenge and concluding with the 1998–99 unmanned probe, Lunar Prospector. Most of the dramatic photographs come from NASA and will introduce a new generation of space enthusiasts to the past missions of Project Mercury, Gemini, and most especially the moon missions, Apollo 1–17. There are plenty of photographs of various astronauts in space capsules, space suits, and walking on the moon. Sometimes photographs are superimposed one on another, making it difficult to read. For example, one photograph shows the command module Columbia as photographed from the lunar module and an insert shows the 15-layer space suit and gear Neil Armstrong would wear for moonwalking. That’s a lot to process on one page. Still, the awesome images of footprints on the moon, raising the American flag, and earthrise from the moon, cannot help but raise shivers. The author concludes with a timeline of exploration, Web sites, recommended books, and picture credits. For NASA memorabilia collectors, end papers show the Apollo space badges for missions 11–17. Useful for replacing aging space titles. (Nonfiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-57091-408-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
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