Old Enough to Save the Planet succeeds for many reasons

If Old Enough to Save the Planet were a time then it would be a sunny, warm weekend afternoon. From time to time there would be a cool breeze and there’d also hear a symphony of birds from a variety of branches in the tree above you. There’s a lot to like about Old Enough to Save the Planet. It’s all presented from an easy-going, leisurely perspective that provides elementary-aged children a dozen real-life examples of youth that saw a problem and are actively doing something about it.

Some people might be wary of the ‘activist’ moniker because that label tends to merely point out the problem without suggesting actionable items to solve it. Old Enough to Save the Planet takes a global look at climate change or other environmental concerns and then offers up examples of what these youths have done in their areas to combat it. It’s an illustrated book that’s heavy and detailed on the illustrations.

We meet Feliz Finkbeiner from Germany who was concerned about the number of trees being cut down around the world. There’s a short paragraph that introduces his passion, tells you that at nine he launched Planet-For-The-Planet, which then led to one million trees being planted in over 100 countries five years later. The illustrations are corner to corner and lovingly done by Adeline Lirius. The detail in the pictures are complemented by their rich colors and the variety in their locations.

Young readers will meet STEM-minded, eco kids from Indonesia, the USA, France, Ukraine, Australia, China, and more. Each two-page spread has those pictures that really help tell the story. There are also a handful of sentences on each spread that add details to the main paragraph. On the page that talks about Himangi Halder in India those blurbs tell us about how she became aware, and then concerned about traffic pollution.

Those sentences inspire kids to be curious and read around the page. This effect also makes kids read more of the text. For example, if the totality of the words were all together in two or three paragraphs, then young readers would see the book as just another illustrated book on the environment. But, because the book spreads the text out over the pages, and on top of the gorgeous artwork, it will draw in casual readers, in addition to those eco kids.

It also does this in a casual, non-preachy manner that makes the kids in the story come off as people that simply wanted to make things better. For those older elementary students Old Enough to Save the Planet will serve as a starting point for more advanced research. Those same students will appreciate the final two pages that take a macro look at the problems, as well as a list of websites that they can do their own research. If your reader is in the early stages of elementary school then this book will be a gentle, non-alarmist book on things that they can do to help the environment, wherever they live.

Old Enough to Save the Planet is by Loll Kirby with illustrations by Adelina Lirus and available from Magic Cat Publishing, an imprint of Abrams Books.

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