Our House Is on Fire

The origin story of the teenage climate change superhero. Once, as she puts it, "the invisible girl in the back who doesn't say anything," Thunberg has, over just the last two years, become a major young presence in the environmental movement, inspiring "Friday school strikes" worldwide and challenging governing bodies to get off the stick: "I want you to panic," she told the World Economic Forum in Davos. "I want you to act as if the house was on fire. Because it is." Skipping Thunberg's personal history aside from characterizing her as one who "could think about one thing for a long, long time" (an ability Thunberg associates with her Asperger's diagnosis, unnamed here), Winter pithily retraces the course of her transformation. She begins with a teacher's lecture on climate change and a period of intense reading and video watching and then goes on to show how Thunberg's lonely Friday picket outside Stockholm's Parliament building gains local, then international, support. The illustrations, equally spare, often place the white teenager front and center before culminating in a double-page spread filled with children of diverse hues and styles of dress holding up signs reading "Don't Burn MY Future" and like urgent messages, followed by a direct question in big, cut-out letters: "WHAT WILL YOU DO?" As one sign puts it, "There Is No Planet B" for any of us. A compact but cogent tribute to a single voice for change that now leads a rising chorus. (source notes) (Picture book/biography. 6-9)

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October 14, 2019
As in Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story of Africa, Winter once again offers a stirring profile of an environmental hero, this time teenage Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. After learning about climate change at school, Greta, a quiet girl who has felt invisible, spends hours reading and watching films “about our warming world.” Overwhelmed with sadness (“She barely ate or spoke”), she devises a way to raise awareness, embarking on a school strike and ultimately sparking an international movement of children marching and speaking out for planetary health. Winter introduces the alarming facts in scenes of the young student as she views evidence of climate change—bleached coral, flooded homes, wildfires, endangered animals—in framed images, as if on a screen. As the movement takes shape, square panels, contained in white negative space, turn into full-bleed pages of high-energy activity. Taking her title from Thunberg’s urgent call to action, Winter ends this timely directive for young readers with a simple, powerful question: “What will you do?” Ages 3–8.

September 27, 2019

PreS-Gr 3-Greta Thunberg, the teen climate activist from Stockholm, made international headlines throughout this year. This picture book valorizes the quiet girl who began to speak out once she learned about climate change. Readers learn about Greta's awakening, including the early days of her climate strike, and her growing impact on climate conversation. The narrative invites the kind of action required to avert the worst effects of climate change. Therein lies the book's innate-and interesting-contradiction. The simple text addresses children much younger than Thunberg, who was 15 when she came to prominence. The visuals are rousing and inspiring, featuring pictures of young kids carrying signs. It sets up an expectation that everyone should do something to help mitigate climate change. This may be a lofty expectation, but it's better than expecting too little. However, the statement that "there might not be a world to live in when she grows up" is likely to inspire panic among children. At the same time, her oversimplified assertion that Thunberg was eventually asked to speak to "very important people" at the UN climate talks and at the World Economic Forum undermines the book's premise that everyone is important in this fight. The simple, vivid illustrations keep the focus on Thunberg and soften the clumsiness in the text. The memorable images can help children imagine their own activism into being. VERDICT Thunberg is an important and exciting inspiration for activists of any age. This book attempts, and sometimes fails, to balance our grim prospects against the efficacy of hopeful action. Use this book in a way that encourages discussion.-Sheri Reda, Wilmette Public Library, IL

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