Change Starts with Us

by Sophie Beer

Overview

This vibrant board book by the creator of Love Makes a Family and Kindness Makes Us Strong celebrates small acts of green living that make a big impact on the environment.

Change starts with planting trees. It starts with turning off faucets, and reusing and recycling. Most importantly, change starts with us! This encouraging preschool read-aloud demonstrates simple yet mighty examples of environmental activism and ways in which young readers can take care of the earth. Whether it's biking places with family or picking up litter with friends, Change Starts with Us proves that everyone has the power to build a better world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593406106
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	12/21/2021
Pages:	26
Sales rank:	194,550
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD180L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 Months to 3 Years

About the Author

Sophie Beer completed a dual degree in Law and Creative Industries with distinction at Queensland University of Technology, but found the whole law thing completely wrong for her and now works primarily in children's and editorial illustration. Reveling in color, shape, and texture, she lives by one simple rule: Art should never be boring. When she's not illustrating and writing, she thinks a lot about plants, animals, music, and books.

Editorial Reviews

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. All children will see themselves in these pages, and feel a bit more empowered to make better choices.”—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

04/01/2022

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.

School Library Journal

2021-12-27
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)

Kirkus Reviews