Listen to the Earth: Caring for Our Planet

by Carme Lemniscates

Overview

a new and original story of climate change and how to respond to it.

This nonfiction picture book offers a new and original story of climate change and how to respond to it. The lyrical narrative, gorgeous illustrations, and information-rich sidebars are built around the central concept of Earth Overshoot Day, the date each year when humanity has used all the resources the planet can regenerate in the entire year. In 2022 that date is July 28th—everything we consume and discard from then to December 31 is borrowed from the future. Listen to the Earth describes and illustrates in child-welcoming terms the global societal changes and actions that will push Earth Overshoot Day toward the end of the year to make our planet sustainable. In this call to action, the difficult path ahead is illuminated by an optimistic faith in kids.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781958394069
Publisher:	Tilbury House Publishers
Publication date:	03/28/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	892,469
File size:	17 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Carme Lemniscates is an author, illustrator, and designer of children's books. She finds her inspiration in nature and mythology, and seeks to create books grow a child's love and respect for this wonderful planet we share. Her goal is to create content that helps children navigate the realities of our world and better understand themselves and others. She lives in Barcelona, Spain.

Editorial Reviews

05/29/2023

Lemniscates proposes gratitude for the Earth and encourages sustainability in this urgent picture book call to action. Poetic observations about the ways the planet provides sustenance, shelter, and fuel also note the overuse of resources before segueing to a stewardship message: “We can find a balance./ The Earth whispers the way/ to hearts that listen.” Sidebars accompany with technically presented details about Earth Overshoot Day—the date each year after which material use outpaces planetary production—and the types of activities that will “move the date.” Employing monotype, collage, and painterly techniques, full-bleed textured artwork depicts dirty industrial scenes in grays, metallic blues, and sickly yellows. In contrast, vivid greens and pinks help set the stage for a cleaner future in which figures of varied skin tones bike, farm, and plant trees—a beatific vision of the apparent harmony the creator suggests is within reach. Back matter provides suggestions for eco-friendly lifestyle changes. Ages 6–8. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

2022-12-14
A call to be mindful of our planet’s capacity to absorb environmental damage.

Drawing on reports from the Global Footprint Network, Lemniscates bases her appeal on the notion of “Earth Overshoot Day,” “the date when human demand since the beginning of the year exceeds what the Earth can produce and absorb in an entire year”—July 28 in 2022, though how that date gets calculated goes unexplained. Urgently pointing out that “we are borrowing from our precious planet’s future,” she tallies a litany of changes in policy and behavior that, oracularly, “will move the date.” If all of her suggestions, from stopping the use of plastic bags to replacing fossil fuels in industrial processes with “green hydrogen,” are broad, even worldwide, in scope, they are still valid agenda items and could, with some creative thinking, be locally, even personally, scaled. But an even larger list of actions in the backmatter comes off more like pie in the sky as the rewards take an arbitrarily specific turn: “If all the world’s people would dress warmly for cold weather and coolly for hot weather, we could move the date 3 days.” The illustrations, rendered in watercolor, acrylic, and collage, open with smoke-shrouded industrial landscapes before moving to more uplifting scenes of racially diverse figures, mostly children, engaged in environmentally conscious activities. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Overwrought but with plenty of talking points for young eco-activists. (Informational picture book. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews