A young adult version of The Story of More by Hope Jahren, acclaimed geochemist and geobiologist, details the science behind key inventions, clarifying how electricity, large-scale farming, and automobiles have both helped and harmed our world.

This is the perfect book for people (teens) who are interested in a factual look at how human consumption habits have altered our physical world and caused very real consequences that we must fix. It relays heavily on science and Jahren's own research but includes enough interesting anecdotes to keep a teen reader interested.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. The Story of More adapted for Young Adults by Hope Jahren discusses the dependence of humans on fossil fuels and meat consumption and how even steps that are taken to prevent some of these things aren't necessarily helpful. The consequences of these actions are clearly spelled out in this book and what's even better are the steps that can be take to help on a small and large scale that most people can do.

Solid book about how we got to where we are now with Climate Change. I haven’t read the original version, but this seems a bit dense even for a young readers adaptation. I enjoyed that she started each chapter with a personal story. I found that enjoyable. But some of the chapters just seemed tedious with data. I could see using excerpts in my classroom, but not necessarily teaching the whole book.

One of the cool things about this book is that it doesn’t strictly talk about climate change in terms of the effects we see today and the industrial causes. I like that the author kind of zooms out and gives a chapter by chapter overview of things. She discusses things like the way human population has changed over thousands of years or the ways in which farming has evolved. Each topic is discussed in only a few pages but paints a much more complete picture of how we got to where we are with carbon levels, food waste, and pollution.

I also like that the book takes time to focus on what individuals can do to make a difference. The issue of Climate Change can be really overwhelming because it feels like the most significant changes have to be made at an industry or government level in order to make a real impact. This doesn’t address how to make those changes specifically. It does look at what meaningful things individuals can do and how making those changes can cause ripple effects across our lives and the lives of others.

One of the most shocking things that the book discussed that I hadn’t heard before actually had to do with the Winter Olympics. The games need a specific environment to be played– snow slopes for instance. The number of places which have the ability to host the games has shrunk considerably since the games began. That was something I hadn’t really specifically thought about before.

I think readers who enjoy books about environmental issues will definitely want to check this one out. If you liked TRASHING THE PLANET or GIRL WARRIORS, then be sure add THE STORY OF MORE to your reading list!

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.