A recent report from the American Academy of Pediatrics says that children are especially at risk from the effects of climate change. A University of Sydney study has found a link between climate change and children’s ER visits. Save the Children predicts that 175 million children will be affected each year in the next ten from climate-related problems. Kids know they’re in danger. They need their parents to talk to them about it and show them that they’re doing something. A new book promises to guide parents and kids in understanding climate change and responding to it: A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids, by Julie Hall, just released by Green Goat Books (http://www.greengoatbooks.com).
The book aims to help kids (ages 9 and up) and their parents by providing the latest information about causes and effects of climate change, how people are working to reduce it, and ways they and their schools can join the fight. It also offers a proactive, hopeful message: Bill McKibben, a well-respected author and the founder of Step It Up and the National Day of Climate Action, writes, “What’s so dangerous about global warming is that it leaves many people feeling hopeless, as if nothing they could do would matter. This fine book makes it clear that that’s not the case.” Four of the book’s seven chapters are devoted to strategies for combating this environmental, social, and economic threat. And the final chapter offers a pep talk for kids and their families, encouraging them to take up the fight and not despair.
Sarah Lane, Green Goat Books Co-founder and also the book’s illustrator, says, “Kids are the ones who are going to inherit the worst of this problem. And, in all likelihood, they’re going to be the ones either to succeed or fail in fighting it. They need their parents to prepare them, by modeling an appropriate response to the crisis and by sharing information and strategies in an age-appropriate way.” Lane adds, “It was our goal to provide kids and parents with a tool to help them in this struggle.”
Key leaders in the war against global warming think that Green Goat Books has succeeded in this mission. The book is endorsed by U.S. Congressman Jay Inslee, who is the author of Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy, and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, a thinktank that brings together business leaders, policy makers, scientists, and other experts to develop new approaches to this complex issue.
Lynn Brunelle, an Emmy-winning writer for Bill Nye the Science Guy, calls A Hot Planet “a powerful tool to put in the hands of all of our children” and “a must-have in any science classroom.” With a downloadable comprehensive curriculum package from Green Goat Books (due out in January), the book should quickly find its way into those science classrooms and into social studies classrooms as well. This will make it easier for teachers to implement climate change units in their schools, at a time when demand is high but curriculum materials are still in short supply. The Green Goat Books curriculum package will include lesson plans, assessment materials, national standards correlations, and cross-curricular teaching strategies.
The publisher Green Goat Books walks the walk: The book is printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper. This comes as no surprise as Green Goat Books is the new independent publishing imprint of planet-friendly e-tailer ProgressiveKid (http://www.progressivekid.com). A pioneer in the green products market, ProgressiveKid offers parents and kids eco-friendly products that convey progressive messages.
Contact: Sarah Lane
Tel.: 206.842.3412
E-mail: contact@greengoatbooks.com
http://www.greengoatbooks.com
