Book Review: “Our World Out of Balance”
“Our World Out of Balance” is a new children’s book about climate change. As an environmental educator with 10 years of professional experience in sustainability, I’ve been surprised by the dearth of quality children’s books about climate change and other environmental issues.
This new book from Blue Dot Kids Press begins with why we care about global warming, before getting into the how and what of climate change. This is a good strategy because from the beginning the reader is given reasons to be invested in this topic. The next section explains the greenhouse gas effect, which is the key scientific principle that must be understood to learn the why and how of climate change. The language is accessible to children from the beginning, with the opening line, “Not too hot, not too cold” and phrases like, “It’s like the Earth has a fever.” The concepts have good sticking power with this kind of wording.
Climate change is a huge and quite abstract topic. After decades of research, scientists are conclusive that human activity is the root cause, but predicting how the effects will be experienced and assessing the damage that has already been done is an evolving science. Likewise, ongoing studies are still determining the most effective ways to combat climate change, both in terms of impact on greenhouse gas emissions and in terms of the effectiveness of strategies relative to collective and individual willpower to create change as a society. This makes for a challenging topic for children’s education. Many popular books promote out-of-date research and emphasize individual action over pushing for societal change, which can be problematic.
The imagery throughout the book is colorful and eye-catching. My son is a visual learner who needs a lot of pictures to stay engaged in reading. This imagery managed to capture his attention and the illustrations and infographics are easy to understand. The book displays a diverse population throughout the illustrations, with a mostly positive and egalitarian representation of the roles and actions of different people. However, I did find the color palette with very white individuals to be a bit of a problematic choice. I wish more natural skin tones would have been used, but the color palette of the book is beautiful overall, so that might be nit-picky on my part.
Following the overview, 14 sections outline the main causes and impacts of climate change, from “rising sea levels”, to “the air we breathe” and concluding with “too much trash.” The order of these sections follows a logical flow relative to different factors that are contributing to climate change and how these impacts will be experienced. Before and after images help to make the impacts of climate change clear, without being overly scary. Each section follows the sequence of what’s happening, why this matters, and the science behind the concept. Perhaps my favorite part of the book, is that each section ends with “How you can help” and “How people are helping.” This drives home a solid message about the role of individual and collective action in working together to solve this environmental crisis. The book also closes with a call to action and a list of organizations where children can learn more and get involved with collective action as well.
Reading the book with my child, I would not be likely to finish it in one sitting because it’s somewhat dense for an 8-year-old. However, I can see us referencing sections while learning about different environmental topics and reading through this book overtime to gain a deeper understanding of the topic.
Overall, this book is a solid new addition to the repertoire of children’s books about climate change and I recommend it.
