Just about the most perfect picture (and book) you can use to start talking to kids about climate change.

Isn't this picture great?

rottenisland

This is from a book called Rotten Island, which was written and drawn by William Steig (best known for his books, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, as well as Shrek). Anyway, Rotten Island chronicles a place that begs:

What would happen if every creature on land and sea were free to be as rotten as possible? If every day was a free-for-all; if plants grew barbed wire; if the ocean were poison? That's life on Rotten Island. For creatures that slither, creep, and crawl (not to mention kick, bite, scratch, and play nasty tricks on each other), Rotten Island is paradise.

But then, on a typically rotten day, something truly awful happens. Something that could spoil Rotten Island forever. Out of a bed a gravel on the scorched earth, a mysterious, beautifly flower begins to grow.

Anyway, the book rocks, although it's a little hard to come by these days.

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That's brilliant!

I don't know about the volcano or the giant bugs. Those might not have anything to do with global warming. But the two fire-breathing spiny lizards, the two-headed monster, and definitely, the thing with 8 legs, those are all for sure due to global warming.

I highly recommend Dr. Seuss's book, The Lorax, as a good children's story for teaching kids about caring for the environment. I read it to my daughter for the first time the other day (she's almost 3) and it was pretty cool how involved she got in the story..."Oh no, what's he doing?" "It's not nice to cut down all the trees." "What's wrong with the birds?"
Did I mention she's brilliant?

When I was about 4 years old, someone read The Lorax to me. It scared the bejesus out of me and precipitated my first-ever existential crisis (thanks Ted Geisel!). It didn't help that my dad worked in the forest industry. Anyways, this is all just to say that if you have an inkling that your child is maybe a bit sensitive, you might want to avoid burdening them with thoughts of irreparable environmental damage.

hahaha! that would have been me as a child. apparently, my daughter comes from much heartier stock. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that she likes to read stories about monsters...no bad dreams...she just thinks they're fun! me...I used to (and still do) get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach when it became clear that a character in a story was going to suffer in some way.

This looks great. Educating kids at an early age about the environment is really one of the best things we can do to address our climate crisis, not to mention all the other threats of pollution and declining biodiversity. Kids books are one good way to do that. I also read a fun article about how bringing live wildlife exhibits to classrooms can have a tremendous educational impact:
http://www.brightfuture.us/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&i…