Touch the Earth

February 6, 2017
Lennon’s debut picture book, the first in a planned trilogy, asks readers to hop aboard a magical airplane, the White Feather Flier (a name inspired by his father and his own environmental and humanitarian foundation), and go on a “helping adventure” to protect the planet’s oceans and water supply. The tactile theme of the title is a tip-off to the authors’ narrative approach: readers are asked to tilt the book as if operating the plane’s steering wheel (“Point the book south to swoop down low for a closer look”), and most spreads include a “button,” a silvery circle, intended to help readers pretend they’re part of the action (“Push the water button to help irrigate the desert”). It will probably be too quaint for older children, especially when coupled with the earnest, lightly pedantic text (“Fish are beautiful and important for so many people”), but members of the lap-sitting set should be intrigued. Coh’s (The Seven Princesses) drawings aren’t particularly distinctive, but they have a sweet-natured directness that may light up younger eyes. Ages 3–6. Authors’ agents: Robert Gottlieb and Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Trident Media Group. Illustrator’s agency: Bright Agency.

February 15, 2017
A pro bono Twinkie of a book invites readers to fly off in a magic plane to bring clean water to our planet's oceans, deserts, and brown children.Following a confusingly phrased suggestion beneath a soft-focus world map to "touch the Earth. Now touch where you live," a shake of the volume transforms it into a plane with eyes and feathered wings that flies with the press of a flat, gray "button" painted onto the page. Pressing like buttons along the journey releases a gush of fresh water from the ground--and later, illogically, provides a filtration device that changes water "from yucky to clean"--for thirsty groups of smiling, brown-skinned people. At other stops, a tap on the button will "help irrigate the desert," and touching floating bottles and other debris in the ocean supposedly makes it all disappear so the fish can return. The 20 children Coh places on a globe toward the end are varied of skin tone, but three of the four young saviors she plants in the flier's cockpit as audience stand-ins are white. The closing poem isn't so openly parochial, though it seldom rises above vague feel-good sentiments: "Love the Earth, the moon and sun. / All the children can be one." "It's time to head back home," the narrator concludes. "You've touched the Earth in so many ways." Who knew it would be so easy to clean the place up and give everyone a drink? (Picture book. 6-8)

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March 1, 2017

PreS-Gr 2-Follow the White Feather Flier around the globe to discover places that need help with access to water. This adventure is designed to help readers "touch the earth" by learning how to take care of it. The story includes a place where people need water to drink, a deep ocean that needs to be cleaned so that fish will return, a parched desert, and a town that needs its water filtered so people can drink it. With soft, colorful illustrations and simple language, this work is attractive, but the heavy message about the importance of keeping water clean and accessible is not presented effectively. The tale is interactive, in the vein of Herve Tullet's Press Here and Bill Cotter's Don't Push the Button!, but the interactions are shallow. For example, touching a button labeled "FISH" results in fish returning to a previously polluted ocean, but there is nothing valuable in the text that would allow children to practice the book's message in their own neighborhoods. This same level of oversimplification prevails throughout. The regions without access to clean water are places that are populated by people of color and are overseas, which implies that this is a problem found only in certain parts of the world, even though this is a global crisis that affects all races. VERDICT This title fills a need for materials about environmental issues aimed at the kindergarten set, but it's a pass for most collections.-Paige Garrison, The Davis Academy, Sandy Springs, GA

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