Kids Fight Climate Change: Act Now to Be a #2minutesuperhero by Martin Dorey and illustrated by Tim Wesson. 128 p. #2minutesuperhero series. Candlewick Press, March, 2022. 9781536223484. (Review of finished copy courtesy of publisher.)
Happy Friday! Happy April! It sure doesn't feel like spring. March did not go out "like a lamb," as the old adage suggests. Our weather has been a bit crazy, and this is a nice segue into our featured title. Fact Friday features Kids Fight Climate Change: Act Now to Be a #2minutesuperhero by Martin Dorey and illustrated by Tim Wesson. This book is part of the #2minutesuperhero series, which is aimed at encouraging young people to become environmentally aware.
The history and science of climate change are explained in the introduction. The author has created seventeen missions that can be accomplished in under two minutes by a young person, mostly without the help of an adult. Some are more easily accomplished than others and range in points from five to twenty. Each are designed to make the reader more environmentally aware and to encourage changing habits such as, do you really need a ride to school each day? Can you walk or perhaps car-pool? Did you know that even your choice of clothing can have an impact on the environment?
The author is an avid surfer and founder of the #2minutebeachclean movement. What's two minutes out of your day? Think about it. If each of us took two or more minutes out of each day to do something for the environment, that could add up quickly to something positive for all of us.
Marjory Saves the Everglades: the story of Marjory Stoneman Douglas by Sandra Neil Wallace. Illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon. 56 p. Paula Wiseman Books/ Simon & Schuster, September, 2020. 9781534431546. (Review of finished copy courtesy of Blue Slip Media.)
Fact Friday is late today! In "never too old for picture book news, Marjory Saves the Everglades: the story of Marjory Stoneman Douglas is our Fact Friday feature. This brilliantly illustrated slightly longer picture book for older readers highlights the long and illustrious life of Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
Marjory's love for Florida, more specifically Florida's everglades was born over a hundred years ago, when she was a child visiting her father, the founder of the Miami Herald. She grew up in the north, went to Wellesley College, married briefly and returned to Florida and began work as a reporter for her father's newspaper. When World War I broke out, she joined the Red Cross. Upon returning home from the war, she found that developers were planning on draining the Everglades in order to develop the land. She researched; she wrote; she enlisted supporters. Eventually, she and her supporters changed minds; but it had to be done again and again over the years as developers tried to drain the Everglades. She even had to battle the US Army Corps of Engineers when they straightened a river and that led to damage to the fragile ecosystem. Her life of environmental activism is an inspiration and a reminder that the environment continues to need our protection.
Plentiful back matter includes a timeline and tons of extra information and resources to learn more. This is a welcome addition to my picture book biography unit.
Hoot by Carl Hiassen. 292 p. Alfred A. Knopf/ Random House Children's Books, September, 2002. 9780375821813. (Own)
Hoot was popular adult author, Carl Hiassen's children's debut. It published in 2002 and won a Newbery Honor in January of 2003. It is the story of Montana transplant, Roy Eberhardt, who isn't making a smooth transition to his small Florida town. He has incurred the wrath of the school bully but befriends a boy known as "Mullet Fingers" who regularly runs away from home. Mullet Fingers is sabotaging a construction site because a rare species of owl nests at the site. Hiassen's books are filled with humor and usually have an environmental theme. Hoot was adapted for film, which released in 2005.
