An empowering collection of short stories about climate change.

Review: This book consists of eight short stories by different established authors (seven British and one Australian) on the theme of climate change. The stories have been collected and edited by Tony Bradman and they explore through fiction the global impact of climate change from Siberia and Canada to Australia, UK, Sri Lanka and the Caribbean.

Most of the writers are well-travelled and use their experiences to bring a global flavour to these stories, as in Candy Gourlay’s 'How to Build the Perfect Sandcastle' which shows how an island in the Philippines is threatened by temperature rise. Similarly, Susan Sandercock’s story 'Sea Canaries' is set in Canada where a young girl discovers that Beluga whales are also threatened by changes to the sea. When described like this one might expect stories that are rather ‘preachy’ or polemical, but it came as a relief (to me anyway) that they are not.

Each of the stories can stand alone as a good example of its genre and they bring issues to life and make them personal in the way only fiction can. This collection of stories is by no means all gloom and doom and they often offer hope as the children portrayed take action to make changes. This book is aimed at children and young adults but any of the stories, and the collection as a whole, can be read  by teachers to stimulate discussion and exploration of the topic of climate change. A nice feature is that each author gives a brief introduction to each story, and this in itself can give young people an insight into the art of story telling.

2010-02-03