Member Reviews
This book seemed promising with the beautiful illustrations but the storyline didn't catch the attention of our pre-school students. It may be a better book for a little bit older (we have 4 year olds). While reading the children would ebb and flow into engagement, as the story speaks directly to them, but none of the children asked to read it during their free time, which is unusual.
These illustrations are gorgeous--colorful and detailed. I love the structure of the text--very kid friendly and more like a dialogue.
Thanks NetGalley for this advanced copy! There are so many qualities parents strive to pass on to the next generation and being a good steward of the Earth is number one for me. Thanks for putting books into the hands of the most impressionable minds and setting them on a wonderful path to do good for the world.
**Thank you to NetGalley, author Alain Serres, and House of Anansi Press Inc.: Groundwood Books for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.**
This is a children's book that shares an extremely powerful message. The message is that children have the right to speak up for their planet, their lives, and their futures. The book talks about the Convention on the Rights of Children and how, by signing this agreement, the majority of world leaders have declared "A child's best interests must always be respected. that matters more than anything else." This is such a valuable declaration that children should be taught and made sure to understand. This book's powerful message has the ability to inspiring children everywhere to stand up for their rights and the rights of our planet. The only thing I would have liked as an addition would be more illustrations that included children. I think visuals in children's books are so powerful, so having children represented as standing up for their rights and being taught how they can make their voices heard would be a great addition.
A good book (and part of a series) to help explain different situations that are going on. Message is straight forward. I'm not huge on the illustrations.
This book was good, but there was a ton of information packed into it which might be too much for kids. All of the information is important, but so many of the actions proposed in this book are not ones that children really have any control over.
This book is both empowering and educational! It is written for children about issues of poverty and climate change. A great tool for families to learn about what's going on around the world and empower the whole family to make a difference. It has beautiful art to boot!
This book is an absolute must for every child's library, and every classroom! It is our responsibility to save the planet for our children. Just as it is their right to join us in this fight, and it was a privilege reading this book! "I Have The Right To Save My Planet" teaches your children about numerous issues facing our planet and her inhabitants while also asserting the importance of everyone joining together to ensure a safe and healthy future for everyone! I enjoyed this book as much as my little ones did. The artwork is childlike yet vibrant and interesting. The verses rhyme but are informative rather than nonsensical. We're looking forward to reading the future books in this series as well.
A huge thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to receive an ARC of this wonderful book! I've already ordered a few copies to give it as gifts!
I Have the Right to Save My Planet will inspire the next generation to do better for our planet. The book focuses on environmental problems and possible solutions encouraging children to be creative when solving problems.
Thanks for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for honest feedback. I thought this book’s strength was in its design and illustrations, which were nice. The message is also important; at times, I think some passages were a bit iffy, but overall, a decent children’s book about a complex and nuanced topic.
I Have the Right to Save My Planet had some great facts pointed out along with hope for change involving the future generations on our planet. There were some problematic lines and the story didn’t flow naturally, however, it was from a child’s point of view and it involved children being encouraged to take action towards the betterment of the planet. So this book has potential with the story but it’s not quite where I would hope for it to be specifically in the illustration department.
It’s upsetting that we’re leaving these burdens on the shoulders of our youth so this book needs to provide solutions instead of facts about how humanity is destroying our one and only planet. These solutions NEED to show children participating in those actions instead of laying around in nature giving the impression that someone else will take care of it.
The illustrations don’t really add to the severity of the topics discussed aside from the visual of the whale with plastic inside of it. There are very few visuals actually showing children doing much to bring about these changes. We need to visually normalize these changes expected of our youth. Show illustrations of children cleaning up litter at a park or telling a parent not to litter, show a child at a grocery store gathering veggies in a reusable mesh bag, show a child turning their food waste into compost, show children making food from scratch with a parent, or show a child thinking about recycling something like a jar and how they could repurpose that jar to use for something else. There are so many ideas that could be presented visually in this book for children to easily participate in on a daily basis.
The message was there, the hope and dream of a better world was there but many of these issues are out of the control of children right now so provide them with the changes they can make now so that they can contribute to the changes they will need to provide in their future.
I don’t believe the illustrations compliment the story well enough for me to recommend this book and those visuals really take away from the importance of the message in this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and House of Anansi Press Inc for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I thought this was a great way for children to start getting involved with trying to help their planet out. Finding ways to help and why it is important to help. I loved the illustrations in this book, I thought they were so beautifully done.
I love this! It will teach kids the impact we have on the environment and what we can change to help it.
A strong, compelling statement that could be written by any child, any place, today on the planet. This story gets to the heart of the complicated balance between human rights, nature, environmental concerns and so much more. Bright, simple illustrations complement the text. I have a hard time placing this book in an age group but for collections that have readers who are strong on social justice, this would be a good addition.
I Have the Right to Save My Planet is a beautiful, mindful, deep book which is fully accessible to children. Through Alain Serres words and Aurélia Fronty’s Illustrations are empowering. Shelley Tanaka did a wonderful job translating this book. I could feel the essence and the impact of this book.
The representation in the images and the candid way it tells children they can be the change they want to see are powerful. This book also doesn't shy away from exposing things that the next generation are inheriting as a burden. It is true that we have done irreparable harm to the environment and each other in the past half century. However, I have the Right to Save My Planet is educational and offers solutions, and I appreciate it immensely for focusing on the positive.
I am dating myself, but I remember when the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child released their children’s version through UNICEF and my world was SHOOK. I was very young and sheltered but I remember 1) crying because I had just found out I was privileged and not all children had access to the most basic of human rights and 2) being determined to empower and protect children, even though I was a child myself. This led me to a life of volunteer work and career with children. I still believe they are agents of change and it is up to us to let them know that.
I mentioned this for two reasons. The first is that I truly believe this book will do for our children what UNICEF’s Child version of the Convention on the Rights of the Child did for me. The other reason I mentioned that is because of this sentence in the book: “I have the right to do all this because I am a child”. It gave me goosebumps. It spoke to my child self.
I think it will be a great book for emergent projects, especially for children in grades 1-3. I think that a couple of pages can be introduced as points of discussion and origin of projects. I work with younger children, but I will still purchase this book to share with them (and a copy for my 9-year-old son). It is never too early or late to bring awareness and help shape positive world citizens.
Thank you, Groundwood Books, NetGalley and Alain Serres for an advanced copy of I Have the Right to Save My Planet in exchange for my honest review. #IHavetheRighttoSaveMyPlanet #NetGalley
My total rating is 5 stars.