Our house is on Fire is mainly written from the point of view of Greta's Mother. It tells about Greta's childhood and how she has had to overcome adversity to be the young woman we see today.

I enjoyed learning more about Great and gained a better understanding of some of the traits she displays in public, however did feel at times that some of her troubles had not been helped by her family. and that her mother in parts was the one pushing for the spotlight.

The facts mentioned in the book were not always backed up by source which I feel would have helped.

Overall an interesting read but mainly for thoe diehard Greta enthusiasts.

Before reading I did know about a little about Greta Thunberg and what she has done for climate change but was keen to find out more.
This book is mainly written by her mother and is sort of like a diary or blog, with anecdotes from childhood through to now.
Greta's mother was a famous opera singer and it seemed a little to me that she had a bit of fame and therefore wanted her daughters to be famous too, no matter the cost.
Greta and her sister had extensive needs between them including autism, ODD, OCD and an eating disorder so it sounds like there household was a busy and hectic to say the least. However I felt like the daughters ran the house and the parents went along with whatever. There was one incident where she could not eat some rice at school and therefore her mum had to make more and rush home. I would have said sorry, but you will eat whatever you are given, I'm not rushing around to make you something else. But perhaps that's just me. In another occasion she wants to strike rather than go to school. I would have said no as school is essential, you won't get that time back. You can strike on a Saturday or Sunday or when you are older. I find it worrying her parents didn't step in.
I also find it quite concerning that she suffered an eating disorder at such a young age and it is suggested that she is anxious from about the age of 4. I find this quite concerning. If a child in my class was suffering from anxiety that would flag up as a major safeguarding concern for me. It's a very young age for that type of thing.
It was an interesting read but I really don't think Greta or her sister belong in the spotlight. It sounds like it will do them more harm than good in the long term. Her mum makes it sound like she became well known through her own doing but I think her mum may have been puppetering this for some time. For that reason I can't give the book higher than a 2.

I found this book rather disjointed and not at all what I expected. I did enjoy the more personal journey detailed by Greta’s mother and learning about their family’s struggles but the information regarding climate change should have perhaps been kept separate in order to have more impact and fit better within this particular narrative.

A moving memoir of how one family, in protecting and helping their daughter overcome her difficulties, rose to challenge of being alive in the era of climate change. A funny, compassionate and hopeful account of how we can collectively work together to overcome the greatest challenge of our times living in a sustainable way.

Our House is on Fire, the title of the memoir of the Thunberg family refers to both the imminent threat of dissolution of a family house and the imminent threat of destruction of the larger house – the planet. Greta Thunberg’s mother, Malena Ernman, provides the primary voice of the family in telling the dual narratives. A famous opera singer in her homeland, Ernman finds the life she has created and adored with her husband and two daughters slowly and steadily unraveling as both of her girls begin exhibiting behaviors that will eventually lead to neuroatypical diagnoses for both of them. For younger Beata, the behaviors are big and sometimes violent, and for older Greta, the behaviors become a ticking time bomb as she stops eating or speaking to anyone outside of her family. This family narrative was unexpectedly affecting as Ernman describes the various methods they used to reach through the chaos to find a way to speak to their daughters. There is a lot of frustration and heartbreak there as both parents try to navigate a system that is not working for the kids (so much for Swedish utopia) and their own limits as parents. Ernman’s prose is not very sentimental which almost acts to magnify what she is describing – eg. The moment when Greta reveals a litany of bullying by peers she has experienced over a period of years, Ernman’s matter of fact narration feels so helpless for its everyday tone.

The second narrative thread on climate change is woven throughout the family story as Greta, in particular, begins to focus on the issue as the defining one of her life and the language of climate change becomes the one that gives her a voice way beyond what even her parents would have expected. We see her steps, baby and giant, that lead her to the moment when she decides to sit her tiny self in defiance in front of the Swedish Parliament with a self-made placard, altering her life and the lives of those around her forever.

So much has been said about Greta Thunberg and her family, and the very orbit around her is filled with intense and caustic argumentation. I am sure that this book draws no less complicated feelings and words. There will be those who continue to call her a puppet, a doomsday thinker, a fraud…I am pretty sure that Greta can deal with all that. And there are those that will continue to be inspired by her…more the better. This book does seek to inspire people to wake up and see the imminent threat to the planet…it is a book about/by Greta after all.

But this book is really about Greta and her family before she became that Greta Thunberg. It is an unpolished accounting – a little messy, a little naïve, a little difficult, a little earnest – but also refreshing because of all of that. There are bound to be more books about and/or by Greta Thunberg for years to come that will be full of veneer and unprecedented professionalism, but there will be none that so deftly and honestly recounts how it all began.

This book, mostly penned by Malena Ernman, mother of Greta Thunberg, reads as a series of disjointed blog entries..

There is much focus on the serious mental health issues of Greta and her younger sister Beata. Autism, Aspergers, ODD and OCD diagnoses dominates family life and family behaviour. The wishes of Greta and Beata completely dominate the families' modus operandi in a way it is hard to imagine. In short if feels like the children are ruling the family and making constant demands that their parents accede to. The parents give up career opportunities when Greta, aged about 12, refuses to fly on principle. Although Greta is quite happy to demand that her father takes her by train from Sweden to London to see Little Mix.

In the second half there is more focus on climate change issues with a lot of statistics which make me wary. Did 9 million people really die in 2017 from environmental pollution? I' don't see a reference for any of the many facts and figures given. 'Computers will be in possession of human-level intelligence in 9 years time'. Really?

One sentence I did agree with was 'Involuntary solitude has become a chronic public-health issue'. Very true in 2020 when most of the world cannot travel to loved ones. But isn't this what Greta and her movement want? Later we are told "the vast majority of us are going to fell much better once we slow down and live more locally". That is happening right now (March 2020) but I don't see much sign of people feeling better - quite the opposite.

Maybe I should not have read this book during coronavirus lockdown. It was depressing and irritating in equal measure.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books (UK) - Allen Lane for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately I found this really hard to get into and sustain. When I decided to read it I hadn’t appreciated what it was about so didn’t know what to expect. Then the penny dropped 🙆‍♀️

Synopsis:

“This story was written by Svante and me together with our daughters, and it’s about the crisis that struck our family. It’s about Greta and Beata. But above all it’s about the crisis that surrounds and affects us all. The one we humans have created through our way of life: beyond sustainability, divorced from nature, to which we all belong. Some call it over-consumption, others call it a climate crisis.”

Naturally, once I did get into it, I was well aware of Greta’s plight with regard to climate change and had heard about her sitting down outside the Swedish Parliament to began a school strike for the climate.

She relentlessly promotes the view that humanity is facing an existential crisis from climate change. A view I wholeheartedly agree with, being an advocate for anything that positively effects climate change.

I found it difficult to embrace the relationship that the parents and children had with regard to the ADHD, Aspergers, Autism and OCD. The family is riddled with conflict and disability, which they all manage incredibly well, however this has been such a strain on them all. In particular when Beta stopped eating and became selective mute.

Parts of it were really really sad, the way people treat each other just because they’re different I found that difficult to understand. Children can be so cruel.

“Stories about being pushed over in the playground, wrestled to the ground, or lured into strange places, the freeze out, the systematic shunning and the safe space in the girls’ toilets where she sometimes manages to hide and cry before the break monitors force her out into the playground again.”

The Education system.

“Greta’s teacher continues to teach her in secret. The school administration repeatedly orders her to stop, finally threatening her with losing her job if she so much as talks to Greta or us.”

Adults too.

“The stickers from the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement in our building’s foyer, aimed at my family because I’ve chosen to take a public stand against racism.”

Greta is different and has been treated abominably.

“The price of being heard is hate. The price of being seen is hate. The price of everything is so terrifyingly much hate. The hate knows no bounds. And the haters are never going to stop hating.”

Some parts of the book were a bit meaningless for me and it was hard going to trawl through. It felt that there was too much drivel from Malena, rather than getting into more detail, just to pad out the book. Maybe this is as a result of the translation, words used or conclusions drawn at some points in the book.

However this quote is quite poignant now, taking into consideration the crisis our planet is experiencing today:

“The sustainability crisis is what it all boils down to. It includes everything we do – from air pollution to economic structures, and it leads us to the core of humankind’s state of health.”

“The solutions require that we slow down and start living on a smaller scale, collectively and locally. That means everything from local democracy to more collectively owned energy and food production.”

Overall for a cause that is high on my agenda I found this book a bit dull and boring. However, that’s a personal view.

“And every time we choose to fly, eat meat or shop for new clothes it leaves a smaller CO2 budget for less fortunate parts of the world.”

This is clear and strong:

“You have created a society where the only things that are valued are social competence, appearance and money. So if you want us to save the world you’d better hurry up to change the society that we all live in. Because as it is now, everyone who thinks a little differently and who comes up with original, out-of-the-box ideas that don’t occur to other people falls apart sooner or later. Either they get bullied in school because they’re different or else they sit at home in order to survive. Unless of course they manage to get into a special-needs school like I did, but then again we don’t have any teachers because hiring teachers decreases the school’s profits.”

Not an uplifting book but one that everyone should try and read as parts are extremely thought provoking and there are quite a few powerful messages.

3⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House UK for this ARC provided in exchange for this unbiased review.

This book is not what I was expecting but I loved the further insight into not only Greta but the entire family.
I enjoyed the information that was given and the insight into what had happened for Greta to be as passionate about climate change as she is.
I also enjoyed further insight into her families life and how they did not hide things such as depression, ocd, odd, autism, eating disorders and other mental health disorders.
This is a very moving book and I have nothing but admiration for the family.

Thank you netgalley for allowing me a copy of this book in return for an honest review

Written by Greta's mother, the book reveals the family story, and is an indictment on a school system that fails children who are different (in her case autism), and the effect that failure can have on a young child. I found it a very interesting glimpse into the family background, and well-written.

Not what I expected. But saying that there is more to Greta then just Greta. She is part of a family who is kept in the background and out of the spot light.
You do hear a lot from Malena and some might be put off buy it but it made a refreshing change rather than hear from Greta all the time.
Well written.
Good book.
Thank you to both NetGalley and publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review

This is not the book I expected. A lot of it seems to be a platform for Malena. I wanted to know more about other members of the family and how Greta and Beata were coping with all the changes in their lives. I feel we did not need to know as much about Malena and that she was blowing her own trumpet on occasions. The facts and statistics in the book were interesting and sobering.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Greta Thunberg's mother Malena Ernman is the main author of the book. I don't suppose that I'm surprised to learn that Greta, and her sister, are autistic., she is so single minded.

A good look at why we need to do something about climate change before we ruin the lives of future generations.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I read an advance review copy of the book. This review is voluntary, honest and my own opinion.

Malena Emman holds nothing back .This is an open honest raw look at her life her family.Greta Thunberg her young daughter now a famous leader in the world of climate control.Gretas family acknowledges she is on the autism spectrum and her sister Beata also has been diagnosed,The excruciatingly difficult time the parents had raising the girls each with very difficult behavioral problems.their coping strength while Malena peruses a very successful career as an opera star,
This was an interesting difficult look at their family and the strength it took to raise these girls.#netgalley #ourhouseisonfire#penguinbooksuk

I thought this book would mainly be about Greta, however, it is mostly written by her mother - Malena - who offers insight into her families struggles. This was interesting as it offered a different perspective. It details Greta's eating disorder and her and her sister Beata's subsequent diagnoses of autism and ADHD and how the family coped during these difficult times.

Their devotion to each other is clear and their strength is apparent in how they managed to heal and support each other in order to fight against climate change.

Inspirational.

Thanks to Penguin Books and Netgalley for the ARC

The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was happening. In such circumstances, it's natural to seek a solution close to home, but eventually, it became clear to the family that they were burned-out people on a burned-out planet. If they were to find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.

Naively, I thought that this book would predominantly be about Greta Thunberg, but it's far more than that. Malena Ernman tells her own story - she has the ability to produce brilliant verbal pictures - and shows how the family became increasingly conscious of the magnitude of the climate crisis as well as frustrated that the facts were not more widely known and acted upon. Ernman is as passionate about the climate crisis as her elder daughter and able to explain it in a few words which the layman can understand. The situation we are in is truly frightening.

Greta and Beata struggled with mental disorders throughout their childhoods. Boys with mental problems are far more likely to be diagnosed at an early stage: girls are then left fighting for the remnants of the available support when they get a diagnosis at an older age. Greta was diagnosed with autism and Beata with ADHD, but it's clear from all that Ernman says that this is simply scratching the surface of the problems.

The title of the book is more meaningful than you might think when you first see it: it hits at the heart of the climate problem. People are tinkering with the edges of the problem rather than looking at the root causes: it's the equivalent of sitting at the kitchen table discussing what you're going to do with the insurance money whilst your house is on fire. Greta Thunberg dismisses carbon offsetting as being pointless and rather like paying poor people to diet for us. There's no reason why the richer parts of the world should not pay for solar panels in the third world, but it shouldn't be a salve to our consciences for the way that we live.

Greta sees the problem as needing a radical solution but as a start:

If the world's richest 10% were required to lower their emission levels to the European Union average, the world's emissions would go down by thirty per cent.'

It doesn't seem unreasonable, does it?

Greta only came to public prominence in August 2018 with her School Strike for Climate. It would make a tremendous difference to her mental health. The story of the strike is told in the last quarter of Our House is on Fire, but the book finishes before some of her more recent activities, such as her trip to the USA.

The book is superb. It's written from the heart and whilst it might lack the polish of a more experienced writer, it doesn't detract from the power of the book at all. It's highly recommended and I'd like to thank the publishers for letting Bookbag have a review copy.

Greta Thunberg is an inspiration that is making a huge difference at a young age. This book about her family and her early obsession with this issue leading to her refusing to eat or speak and her family's eventual reconfiguration of their lives to support her gave me mixed feelings. On one hand, I truly admire Greta's dedication to an issue that we should all care about. She is truly an inspiration. However, I find it concerning that her family changed their daily lives based on her behavior. I feel that Greta had too much control over her parents due to the fact that this happened. Again, I am not criticizing her belief in this very real system, just how she got to where she did in her activism. Overall, this was a very informative read that makes the reader think about what they can do to change their daily lives and help slow climate change.

Greta Thunberg is all over my Instagram feed and I have always held her in very high regard. Her refusal to accept the future as it seems to look right now is inspirational- but after reading Our House is on Fire, I can see how difficult it has been for her to establish her place in the world, and how hard it has been for her sister to build a life in the face of multiple diagnoses, all of which require sensitive help and immaculate care. Malena Ernman and Svante Thunberg have spent years trying to establish routines and normality for their family. Reading this makes it clear how hard this has been, and their acceptance of and devotion to their children makes for a bittersweet read.

This book was not what I expected when I chose to read it. I really enjoyed the experience of reading it and finding insight into the family.

An interesting story and an interesting topic. I loved how it was written and learn more about Great and her family.
The part about environmentalism is well researched and it made me think.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Our House On Fire is credited as being written by Malena Emman, Svante Thunberg and their daughters Greta and Beata but it's basically Ms Emman's book with a bit of input from the rest of the family.
The book basically tells the family's history leading up to Greta's school strike that thrust a formerly very vulnerable young person into the World's gaze, and on reading this book I realised what an amazing transition that was. Ms Emman tells us of the serious problems both of her daughters have had with autism ,ADHD along with the collection of other "diagnoses" they have between them and how ,like her, those "differences" have enabled them to become the gifted people they are now.
It took me a few pages to get into the book,it reads like a collection of Blog entries with seemingly random streams of consciousness in each short chapter but all of it thought provoking until it becomes more linear with the birth of the daughters.
From the first time I read about Greta, and the fact that people know who you mean when you use her first name says a lot about the influence of this young person, I've been massively impressed, reading about the severe problems she has that she fought to further her cause is extremely moving. From struggling to communicate with anyone to engaging with politicians and scientists and addressing mass audiences almost overnight is pretty amazing .
Once I'd got into the initial feeling that the book was a load of random thoughts thrown together I was engrossed and there's so much in this book to think about as Ms Emman talks about the media,government promises, bullying ,education focussing on life's winners and of course the environment ,climate change and so much more. The best bit for me was reading her views about "different" people and how often those differences are the reason those who have them often could not follow their chosen path without them, her included....she's was a major celebrity in Sweden years before Greta was born.
An excellent book that is informative and moving, it's not "all about Greta" but a large part of it is and after reading it I have even more respect for her and the family whose love for her and Beata despite the difficulties their differences posed in their lives meant that they grew and made successful lives for themselves .

Thanks to Malena and Beata Emman, Svante and Greta Thunberg, Penguin Books and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.