# data[].attributes.body
Laurine Chiron, Corentin Girault, Sandra Le Vagueresse, Elisabeth Roc.
LPRO Métiers du livres, Université Rennes 2, 2019/2020
Chain reaction children book

# data[].attributes.body
Chain reaction book

# data[].attributes.headline
'Tip of the iceberg': is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19?

# data[].attributes.subject
'Tip of the iceberg': is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19?

# data[].attributes.body
Article from The Guardian, 18th March 2020

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
ayibout 2 is not a healthy place. The 150 or so people who live in the village, which sits on the south bank of the Ivindo River, deep in the great Minkebe Forest in northern Gabon, are used to occasional bouts of diseases such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever and sleeping sickness. Mostly they shrug them off.

But in January 1996, Ebola, a deadly virus then barely known to humans, unexpectedly spilled out of the forest in a wave of small epidemics. The disease killed 21 of 37 villagers who were reported to have been infected, including a number who had carried, skinned, chopped or eaten a chimpanzee from the nearby forest.

I travelled to Mayibout 2 in 2004 to investigate why deadly diseases new to humans were emerging from biodiversity "hotspots" such as tropical rainforests and bushmeat markets in African and Asian cities.

It took a day by canoe and then many hours along degraded forest logging roads, passing Baka villages and a small goldmine, to reach the village. There, I found traumatised people still fearful that the deadly virus, which kills up to 90% of the people it infects, would return.

Villagers told me how children had gone into the forest with dogs that had killed the chimp. They said that everyone who cooked or ate it got a terrible fever within a few hours. Some died immediately, while others were taken down the river to hospital. A few, like Nesto Bematsick, recovered. "We used to love the forest, now we fear it," he told me. Many of Bematsick's family members died.

Only a decade or two ago it was widely thought that tropical forests and intact natural environments teeming with exotic wildlife threatened humans by harbouring the viruses and pathogens that lead to new diseases in humans such as Ebola, HIV and dengue.

But a number of researchers today think that it is actually humanity's destruction of biodiversity that creates the conditions for new viruses and diseases such as Covid-19, the viral disease that emerged in China in December 2019, to arise - with profound health and economic impacts in rich and poor countries alike. In fact, a new discipline, planetary health, is emerging that focuses on the increasingly visible connections between the wellbeing of humans, other living things and entire ecosystems.

Is it possible, then, that it was human activity, such as road building, mining, hunting and logging, that triggered the Ebola epidemics in Mayibout 2 and elsewhere in the 1990s and that is unleashing new terrors today?

"We invade tropical forests and other wild landscapes, which harbour so many species of animals and plants - and within those creatures, so many unknown viruses," David Quammen, author of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Pandemic, recently wrote in the New York Times. "We cut the trees; we kill the animals or cage them and send them to markets. We disrupt ecosystems, and we shake viruses loose from their natural hosts. When that happens, they need a new host. Often, we are it."

Research suggests that outbreaks of animal-borne and other infectious diseases such as Ebola, Sars, bird flu and now Covid-19, caused by a novel coronavirus, are on the rise. Pathogens are crossing from animals to humans, and many are able to spread quickly to new places. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that three-quarters of new or emerging diseases that infect humans originate in animals.

Some, like rabies and plague, crossed from animals centuries ago. Others, such as Marburg, which is thought to be transmitted by bats, are still rare. A few, like Covid-19, which emerged last year in Wuhan, China, and Mers, which is linked to camels in the Middle East, are new to humans and spreading globally.

Other diseases that have crossed into humans include Lassa fever, which was first identified in 1969 in Nigeria; Nipah from Malaysia; and Sars from China, which killed more than 700 people and travelled to 30 countries in 2002-03. Some, like Zika and West Nile virus, which emerged in Africa, have mutated and become established on other continents.

Kate Jones, chair of ecology and biodiversity at UCL, calls emerging animal-borne infectious diseases an "increasing and very significant threat to global health, security and economies".

In 2008, Jones and a team of researchers identified 335 diseases that emerged between 1960 and 2004, at least 60% of which came from animals.

Increasingly, says Jones, these zoonotic diseases are linked to environmental change and human behaviour. The disruption of pristine forests driven by logging, mining, road building through remote places, rapid urbanisation and population growth is bringing people into closer contact with animal species they may never have been near before, she says.

The resulting transmission of disease from wildlife to humans, she says, is now "a hidden cost of human economic development. There are just so many more of us, in every environment. We are going into largely undisturbed places and being exposed more and more. We are creating habitats where viruses are transmitted more easily, and then we are surprised that we have new ones."

Jones studies how changes in land use contribute to the risk. "We are researching how species in degraded habitats are likely to carry more viruses which can infect humans," she says. "Simpler systems get an amplification effect. Destroy landscapes, and the species you are left with are the ones humans get the diseases from."

"There are countless pathogens out there continuing to evolve which at some point could pose a threat to humans," says Eric Fevre, chair of veterinary infectious diseases at the University of Liverpool's Institute of Infection and Global Health. "The risk [of pathogens jumping from animals to humans] has always been there."

The difference between now and a few decades ago, Fevre says, is that diseases are likely to spring up in both urban and natural environments. "We have created densely packed populations where alongside us are bats and rodents and birds, pets and other living things. That creates intense interaction and opportunities for things to move from species to species," he says.

"Pathogens do not respect species boundaries," says disease ecologist Thomas Gillespie, an associate professor in Emory University's department of environmental sciences, who studies how shrinking natural habitats and changing behaviour add to the risk of diseases spilling over from animals to humans.

"I am not at all surprised about the coronavirus outbreak," he says. "The majority of pathogens are still to be discovered. We are at the very tip of the iceberg."

Humans, says Gillespie, are creating the conditions for the spread of diseases by reducing the natural barriers between host animals - in which the virus is naturally circulating - and themselves. "We fully expect the arrival of pandemic influenza; we can expect large-scale human mortalities; we can expect other pathogens with other impacts. A disease like Ebola is not easily spread. But something with a mortality rate of Ebola spread by something like measles would be catastrophic," Gillespie says.

Wildlife everywhere is being put under more stress, he says. "Major landscape changes are causing animals to lose habitats, which means species become crowded together and also come into greater contact with humans. Species that survive change are now moving and mixing with different animals and with humans."

Gillespie sees this in the US, where suburbs fragment forests and raise the risk of humans contracting Lyme disease. "Altering the ecosystem affects the complex cycle of the Lyme pathogen. People living close by are more likely to get bitten by a tick carrying Lyme bacteria," he says.

Yet human health research seldom considers the surrounding natural ecosystems, says Richard Ostfeld, distinguished senior scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York. He and others are developing the emerging discipline of planetary health, which looks at the links between human and ecosystem health.

"There's misapprehension among scientists and the public that natural ecosystems are the source of threats to ourselves. It's a mistake. Nature poses threats, it is true, but it's human activities that do the real damage. The health risks in a natural environment can be made much worse when we interfere with it," he says.

Ostfeld points to rats and bats, which are strongly linked with the direct and indirect spread of zoonotic diseases. "Rodents and some bats thrive when we disrupt natural habitats. They are the most likely to promote transmissions [of pathogens]. The more we disturb the forests and habitats the more danger we are in," he says.

Felicia Keesing, professor of biology at Bard College, New York, studies how environmental changes influence the probability that humans will be exposed to infectious diseases. "When we erode biodiversity, we see a proliferation of the species most likely to transmit new diseases to us, but there's also good evidence that those same species are the best hosts for existing diseases," she wrote in an email to Ensia, the nonprofit media outlet that reports on our changing planet.

Disease ecologists argue that viruses and other pathogens are also likely to move from animals to humans in the many informal markets that have sprung up to provide fresh meat to fast-growing urban populations around the world. Here, animals are slaughtered, cut up and sold on the spot.

The "wet market" (one that sells fresh produce and meat) in Wuhan, thought by the Chinese government to be the starting point of the current Covid-19 pandemic, was known to sell numerous wild animals, including live wolf pups, salamanders, crocodiles, scorpions, rats, squirrels, foxes, civets and turtles.

Equally, urban markets in west and central Africa sell monkeys, bats, rats, and dozens of species of bird, mammal, insect and rodent slaughtered and sold close to open refuse dumps and with no drainage.

"Wet markets make a perfect storm for cross-species transmission of pathogens," says Gillespie. "Whenever you have novel interactions with a range of species in one place, whether that is in a natural environment like a forest or a wet market, you can have a spillover event."

The Wuhan market, along with others that sell live animals, has been shut by the Chinese authorities, and last month Beijing outlawed the trading and eating of wild animals except for fish and seafood. But bans on live animals being sold in urban areas or informal markets are not the answer, say some scientists.

"The wet market in Lagos is notorious. It's like a nuclear bomb waiting to happen. But it's not fair to demonise places which do not have fridges. These traditional markets provide much of the food for Africa and Asia," says Jones.

"These markets are essential sources of food for hundreds of millions of poor people, and getting rid of them is impossible," says Delia Grace, a senior epidemiologist and veterinarian with the International Livestock Research Institute, which is based in Nairobi, Kenya. She argues that bans force traders underground, where they may pay less attention to hygiene.

Fevre and colleague Cecilia Tacoli, principal researcher in the human settlements research group at the International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED), argue in a blog post that rather than pointing the finger at wet markets, we should look at the burgeoning trade in wild animals.

"It is wild animals rather than farmed animals that are the natural hosts of many viruses," they write. "Wet markets are considered part of the informal food trade that is often blamed for contributing to spreading disease. But ... evidence shows the link between informal markets and disease is not always so clear cut."

So what, if anything, can we do about all of this?

Jones says that change must come from both rich and poor societies. Demand for wood, minerals and resources from the global north leads to the degraded landscapes and ecological disruption that drives disease, she says. "We must think about global biosecurity, find the weak points and bolster the provision of health care in developing countries. Otherwise we can expect more of the same," she adds.

"The risks are greater now. They were always present and have been there for generations. It is our interactions with that risk which must be changed," says Brian Bird, a research virologist at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine One Health Institute, where he leads Ebola-related surveillance activities in Sierra Leone and elsewhere.

"We are in an era now of chronic emergency," Bird says. "Diseases are more likely to travel further and faster than before, which means we must be faster in our responses. It needs investments, change in human behaviour, and it means we must listen to people at community levels."

Getting the message about pathogens and disease to hunters, loggers, market traders and consumers is key, Bird says. "These spillovers start with one or two people. The solutions start with education and awareness. We must make people aware things are different now. I have learned from working in Sierra Leone with Ebola-affected people that local communities have the hunger and desire to have information," he says. "They want to know what to do. They want to learn."

Fevre and Tacoli advocate rethinking urban infrastructure, particularly within low-income and informal settlements. "Short-term efforts are focused on containing the spread of infection," they write. "The longer term - given that new infectious diseases will likely continue to spread rapidly into and within cities - calls for an overhaul of current approaches to urban planning and development."

The bottom line, Bird says, is to be prepared. "We can't predict where the next pandemic will come from, so we need mitigation plans to take into account the worst possible scenarios," he says. "The only certain thing is that the next one will certainly come."

This piece is jointly published with Ensia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'Tip of the iceberg': is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ayibout 2 is not a healthy place. The 150 or so people who live in the village, which sits on the south bank of the Ivindo River, deep in the great Minkebe Forest in northern Gabon, are used to occasional bouts of diseases such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever and sleeping sickness.

# data[].attributes.body
Arran Stibbe

# data[].attributes.headline
Ways to use bilingual books with children

# data[].attributes.subject
Ways to use bilingual books with children

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bilingual Books are books written in two different languages. They aren't usually translated word for word, but rather the same story line written in each language. If they are written well, bilingual books can be a valuable resource for parents and educators to use with children.

Anneke Forzani is the founder of Language Lizard, which offers bilingual books, dual-language audio and multilingual resources for teachers, librarians, and bilingual families. Below she shares some tips on how parents and educators can use bilingual books at home and in the classroom.

Read on to find out how you can enter to win bilingual books for your children.

Studies have shown that supporting a child's home language is very important for enhancing academic performance, even in cases where the language spoken at school is not the same as the language spoken at home. Children do better in school when their parents read to them, communicate, and engage in daily tasks and activities in the language in which they are most comfortable.

Bilingual books are a great resource for bridging the two different languages. They offer educators the chance to teach their pupils in the school language while providing a tool for home language development and parental involvement.

Books in two languages can motivate parents to continue interacting with their children in their home language, knowing that it will help their overall language development, not hinder their school achievement.

Below are 5 tips for parents and educators to use bilingual books in the classroom and at home to improve literacy skills and encourage cultural appreciation.

1. Teachers can read a bilingual book in the school language and then lend it to the child to read in the home language.

In addition to supporting their child's overall language development, reading at home with parents strengthens the child-parent bond and helps the parent teach about their shared culture and language.

2. Educators can read bilingual books in English and then show students written text in a second language.

Teachers can use bilingual stories to familiarize children with other languages that use the Roman alphabet as well as languages with different letters and symbols, such as Hindi and Korean. This way, children can better understand that written speech and letters have varied forms.

3. Teachers can read culturally relevant bilingual books.

When educators read multicultural books that show texts from other parts of the world, they are imparting knowledge about various cultures, customs and traditions. This promotes a climate of cultural diversity and tolerance in the classroom.

4. Parents or other volunteers can read a bilingual book in the non-dominant language.

Teachers can invite parents to participate in reading bilingual books in their home language to the class. The teacher can then read the book in the school language. This enhances the bonds between the class and the family/community. It also makes parents feel welcome and provides an opportunity for them to share their expertise. If parents are unable or unwilling to come to the classroom, other teachers or community members who know the home language can be invited to read in the second language.

5. Engage children with question and answer sessions and discussion in both the school and home languages.

Bilingual books can offer the chance to discuss the same subjects in two separate languages. Teachers can initiate communication in the school's language, while parents can do the same in their home language. Children can be sent home with a list of suggested topics for discussion to use with parents at home.

These are just a few examples of ways that teachers and parents can utilize bilingual books at school and at home. The aim is to build a child's overall literacy and communication skills, ensure that they are proud of their culture and language, and help them become understanding, multicultural citizens.
*This giveaway is now closed, congratulations Lindsay B and Sarah S* Are you raising a bilingual child? Subscribe for related articles. Follow Bilingual KidSpot on Facebook and join our Private Online Support Group.

Chontelle is a Certified ESL teacher, writer and mother of two bilingual kids. She offers practical advice for parents seeking to raise bilingual or multilingual children; with inspiration, support and strategies based on her experience as a parent, and as a teacher of a foreign language to children.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 Ways To Use Bilingual Books With Children - Bilingual Kidspot

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bilingual Books are books written in two different languages. They aren't usually translated word for word, but rather the same story line written in each language. If they are written well, bilingual books can be a valuable resource for parents and educators to use with children.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Heal the Earth with These Inspiring Picture Books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Inspire kids to become environmental advocates. This list is designed to give your child critical tools to protect the environment. We've included some fiction and many nonfiction titles that offer practical tips and inspiring tales of earth-friendly acts of kindness.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fort Collins author Todd Mitchell starts every book he writes with a question. His latest middle grade novel, "The Last Panther," takes place in an apocalyptic world in what used to be Florida. Two divided human populations deal with climate ...

# data[].attributes.headline
The best eco books for children and teens

# data[].attributes.subject
The best eco books for children and teens

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This week we're celebrating the positive power of stories, all kinds of stories, to bring home what we risk losing on our beautiful planet - and what we can do about it. Here authors and children's books site members share the books that made them think. We'll be feeding this blog with more recommendations all week, so please share yours - and keep checking back.
Frank Cottrell Boyce (whose latest book is the remarkably green The Astounding Broccoli Boy)
The book that made me realise that I was part of the environment was The Ladybird Book of Saints. On the cover was this brilliant image of St Francis releasing the caged birds he had he had bought in the market. For ages afterwards I would go into pet shops and zoos and itch to unlock the doors. In fact there are "freeing the animals" scenes in at least two of my books. There are so many environmental messages about how horrible humans are wrecking the planet - that's obviously true in a way but this image made me feel that I belonged in the World too and that I could cherish and love it.
David Almond, author of Skellig
The Promise by Nicola Davies and Laura Carlin. It's beautifully written, beautifully illustrated picture book. It shows a troubled darkened world being recreated by the human need for greenery, life and colour.
Louise O'Neill, author of Only Ever Yours
Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake is a speculative fiction novel that is very much concerned with the damage humans are inflicting upon the environment and the possible catastrophic results that could have. Written in 2003, many plot points now seem eerily prescient and it makes for a disturbing, powerful read. Highly recommended for older teenagers.

Carl Hiaasen's Hoot is true to its name in that it's a supremely funny YA novel, and one that tends to be overlooked. There's a real environmental streak running through all of Hiaasen's works and Hoot is no exception, it deals with a Florida teen who bands together with a couple of new friends to stop the destruction of a burrowing owl colony. It's a lot of fun with a solid conservationist message at its core and an abundance of charm to boot."
Candy Gourlay, author of Shine
Long ago I wrote a short story called How to Build the Perfect Sandcastle for Under the Weather, the climate change anthology edited by Tony Bradman. About a white sand beach losing its sand because the sea is heating up ... the same hot oceans that later whipped up the murderous monster that was Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

Perhaps the all too real climate change disaster in the Philippines has made me partial to flood stories. My favorite is Not the End of the World, the lyrical resetting of Noah's Ark as a Tsunami survival story by Geraldine McCaughrean.
Lottie Longshanks, site member
The wild series by Piers Torday. So far I have read The Last Wild and The Dark Wild. Kester has the unusual gift of communicating with animals and it is his mission to save the animals from red eye the disease that is slowly killing them. It is a really exciting story and you soon guess who the villains are Selwyn Stone and his lackeys who want to dictate the way that everyone lives. The amazing rubbish dump in the second book in the series really makes you think about the damage that we are doing to our planet. I can't wait to read the third book in the series, The Wild Beyond.

White Dolphin by Gill Lewis Set in the south West of England the exciting story tells of children who take on the might of a powerful fishing business to stop dredging in the harbour because of the damage it does to marine life. I also love Moon Bear by Gill Lewis. This incredibly moving story shows how deforestation leads to misery for the animals whose habitat was the forest. And finally here is a recommendation for small children I read it to my cousin who lives in Oman when he comes to visit us. Dear Greenpeace by Simon James. Emily writes to Greenpeace to find out how to care for the whale that she thinks she has seen in her pond. Emily's letters and the lovely replies she receives from Greenpeace will give little children a lot of information about whales. (Also see Lottie Longshank's poem Our Precious world)
SF Said, author of Varjak Paw
I recommend Exodus by Julie Bertagna: a brilliantly prescient YA novel about climate change, set in a drowned future world. It's full of unforgettable visions and characters, and it will stay with you forever!

ItWasLovelyReadingYou, site member
My book would be Breathe by Sarah Crossan. It made me think about how we take so many things for granted, such as oxygen. You can't see it, we use it every day, without it we would not survive; yet many people do not really sit down and feel a sense of gratitude for these types of things, becuase we assume we deserve them, we see them as something that will never go away, we just accept it without question. Breathe really made me feel a sense of 'imagine if we didn't have oxygen, or we had limited supplies of it-", it made me question my unconscious detachment from what keeps us alive, and really feel privelidged to have all of these necessities.
Katherine Rundell, author of Rooftoppers
Cosmic, by Frank Cottrell Boyce. Cosmic is a book that makes the world look like something worth protecting. It's hilariously funny, and also wise - it makes its readers want desperately to go into space, but also to take care of the world while we're on it. The Earth is, as one of the astronauts says, "some kind of lovely." The Last Wild series by Piers Torday - these three spectacular books are about a world decimated by humans, and the possibility of that loss feels very real and urgent and frightening - and they're also fantastic adventure stories, about bravery and animals and human capacity to do huge good as well as harm. And there's a bossy talking cockroach.

Site Brahmachari, author of Kite Spirit and Artichoke Hearts
For me it has to be The Ring of Bright Water Trilogy by Gavin Maxwell. I fell in love with these books as a child because they are set on the West coast of Scotland - a place I love - where wildlife and nature are the biggest characters. It;s a humbling landscape. If you have a love of the outdoors and really want to study the nature of beautiful, playful otters... and can stand to have your heart broken .... you should read these stories. Although they were written 50 years ago they are as timeless as the shingle beaches they are set on. The author lived and breathed the paradise he went to live in... and so will you when you read these books... and afterwards you can watch the film (tissues at the ready!)
OrliTheBookWorm, site member
Breathe by Sarah Crossan is probably the book that's impacted me the most in terms of the environment - it's a dystopian novel, with people living in domes due to a lack of oxygen - the raw descriptions and harsh realities were wonderfully done and uttery thought provoking, and made me take a step away from my laptop and have a look outside my window.... It's a brilliant book, which I guarantee will change your perspective on the environment around us.
Piers Torday, author of The Dark Wild trilogy
The Animals of Farthing Wood by Colin Dann - the original classic tale of a group of British animals seeking refuge when their precious Farthing Wood is threatened by human development. They overcome incredible obstacles and danger to make it to a wildlife sanctuary. But reading it today there is an extra poignancy - some of the animals in the story, like the red-backed shrike, are now extinct, and others - like the adder, hare and voles - are all under threat.
BritishBiblioholic, site member
Watership Down by Richard Adams - When the rabbits in Watership Down are forced to leave their home, it is due to its impending destruction by humans. This potentially can be seen as an allegory for the ongoing destruction for the environment in general - and unlike the rabbits, if we don't save our environment, we won't be able to find somewhere else to live.
Tony Bradman, author of Anzac Boys
One of my favourite books about the environment is Oi! Get Off Our Train, a brilliant picture book by John Burningham. It's about a boy who dreams he's travelling around the world on his toy train, and each time he stops he picks up animals from species that are endangered because their habitat is being threatened or has been destroyed. Great pictures and the message is delivered with a lot of fun.
Sarah Crossan, author of Breathe
The Last Wild by Piers Torday - it's rare for a cli-fi novel to be magical, engaging and affecting, but Torday achieves all of these things. Not only that, but each book in the trilogy gets better. He's not a writer to watch but one we are already keenly watching.
Please share the book that made YOU think about the environment and climate change and we'll add it to this blog. You can either email on childrens.books@theguardian.com with the heading "eco books" or tweet @GdnChildrensBks. Beatrice, on email
The Word for World is Forest by Ursula Le Guin for fairly sophisticated young readers from about age 13. The indigenous social organization of the very green planet experiencing colonization therein was fascinating, and opens young minds up to understanding the profound disruptions experienced by, as well as the important teachings of native peoples everywhere. Also, The Owl Service byAlan Garner gave rise to surprising conversations with my 10 year-old about landscape, and the connections between culture, history and the environment, as well as the importance to humans of preserving those connections. For much younger children The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein can seem a little odd viewed from a conservationist perspective, but it inspired lovely conversations about nature and environmental stewardship ("us taking care of nature because nature takes care of us") with my 4 year-old. Anything by Jean Craighead George.
Sandra, on email
I would strongly recommend the power of Scottish writer Rachel Meehan's two books, Power's Out and Water's Edge. Through her strong characterisation, and the fiesty nature of her principal character Nairne, her hard-hitting story lines play out with force. The unvarnished truth of the implications of relentless climate change is delivered through fast paced adventures, which are compelling reading for young people. Her message is unmissable.

Teresa, on email
Have a look at Rachel Meehan's books - the Waters Edge trilogy.
Mary, curator, eco-fiction.com
Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta: The novel takes place in the future after climate change has ravished economies and ecologies, and made fresh water scarce. The main character, Noria, is a young woman learning the traditional, sacred tea master art from her father. Yet, water is rationed and scarce in her future world. Her family has a secret spring of water, and, as tea masters, she and her father act as the water's guards, even though what they are doing is a crime according to their future world's government, a crime strongly disciplined by the military.

Nature's Confession by JL Morin: The eco-novel is wonderful and reminds me of classic science fiction I watched or read as a kid. It was a genre that fascinated me then, and this book has joined that memory. The novel is epic in that it doesn't just tell a story (which it does do too), but it puts our very survival into question while romping through the universe or discovering new quantum physics that are both scientific and spiritual in nature. In the meantime, universal symbols are unearthed, codes are investigated, fat corporations are dominating, a romance is blossoming, computers come alive, and native tribes and Nature on another planet bring our own treasured past into the future.

Tito intiro Chavaropana by Jessica Groenendijk: Tito intiro Chavaropana means 'Tito and the Giant Otter' in Matsigenka. The author, a biologist who has studied giant otters, is now working on a sequel, in which Tito sets off into the forest to hunt a spider monkey and meets a harpy eagle on the way. They become friends but not without a misunderstanding or two!

Spirit Bear by Jennifer Harrington: Spirit Bear celebrates a rare and iconic black bear that is born with a recessive gene that makes its coat creamy or white. Also called the Kermode bear, the spirit bear lives in the delicate, rich, and threatened ecosystem of the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, Canada. Jennifer's story is about the journey of a spirit bear cub that gets lost from his mother and has to find his way back.
Rachel, on email
I would like to recommend Rachel Meehan's Water's Edge and Power's Out, from the Troubled Times series, published by Cherry House publishing. I bought these books for my son who was around 13 at the time and he gobbled them up, so I took a peek and was hooked from the beginning. I'm a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to apocalyptic, end-of-world type stuff, so I was nervous about the subject matter, but the stories are so strong, and the lead character is so gutsy, that I was quickly able to put my fears aside and just get lost in the books, the sign of a very good read. I think that these books make the threat of climate change seem very real; they are based on the implications of slow, incremental change rather than something sudden and momentous, which makes them feel that they could be set in a very near future, and that in fact some of the issues touched on in the book are already with us. All the more frightening. I am writing this recommendation as an adult reader, but I think I can say on behalf of my teenage son, with whom I have discussed the books (and he loves them), that the author has a very direct style, generates pace and tension brilliantly and raises very important issues of our time, in a way that is highly readable and has a powerful impact, not just for a teenage audience but for adults too.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What are the best eco books for children and teens?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This week we're celebrating the positive power of stories, all kinds of stories, to bring home what we risk losing on our beautiful planet - and what we can do about it. Here authors and children's books site members share the books that made them think.

# data[].attributes.body
for children of all ages

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The best books about green living for children of all ages

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Talking about environmental issues with young people can be tricky, but literature and non-fiction can help start the conversation

# data[].attributes.headline
Encouraging Happiness in Our Children: Catherine Killingsworth at TEDxCreativeCoast

# data[].attributes.subject
Encouraging Happiness in Our Children: Catherine Killingsworth at TEDxCreativeCoast

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Encouraging Happiness in Our Children: Catherine Killingsworth at TEDxCreativeCoast

# data[].attributes.headline
Catherine Killingsworth and the Deep staff:  The cure for IDK writing lessons

# data[].attributes.subject
Catherine Killingsworth and the Deep staff:  The cure for IDK writing lessons

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
L' éveil aux langues pour accompagner l'enfant migrant en difficulté et sa famille

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
offrir aux différents acteurs de l'éducation ou du soin un espace d'échanges, de formation aux médiations plurielles, transculturelles, à l'approche narrative

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Site internet des Éditions HongFei Cultures. Maison d'édition créée en France en 2007. Éditions interculturelles spécialisées jeunesse. Publication de textes d'auteurs chinois illustrés par des artistes français, de livres sur les thèmes de l'altérité, de la Chine et autour du voyage, de la relation à l'autre et de l'intérêt pour l'inconnu.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Albums jeunesse bilingues en français et en arabe - Le port a jauni

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Le Port a jauni publie des albums jeunesse bilingues et des ouvrages poétiques en français et en arabe. Les livres bilingues sont imaginés et conçus pour jouer avec le double sens de lecture du français et de l'arabe.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Livres bilingues pour enfants : Oops et Ohlala - Éditions Talents Hauts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Livres bilingues pour enfants : Oops et Ohlala

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I've written many stories for children of all ages - from picture books to young adult fiction. You might think that picture books must be easier because they are so short. But you'd be wrong! A really good picture book, as you'll know if you've ever read and shared one with a child, may seem satisfyingly simple but will probably have taken years and many drafts to create. No, writing a picture book isn't easy, but it's very rewarding.

So, how do you go about it?

Here are five steps to consider:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to write a picture book for children

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I've written many stories for children of all ages - from picture books to young adult fiction. You might think that picture books must be easier because they are so short. But you'd be wrong!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Making picture books is a strange old business, readers. It's a unique little medium. As a picture book author and illustrator, I've only got 32 pages to introduce my characters, establish setting, build anticipation, insert a little mild peril and eventually reach some kind of satisfying conclusion. With, hopefully, enough wit and charm along the way to hold the attention of my most skittish young readers.

I've not yet evolved into one of those writers with a watertight routine; you know, the ones who can only sit down and create great works if they use a particular pencil/sit in a special chair/pet their lucky ceramic goat three times. I've never been hugely organised, but have tried my best to document what one could laughably call my 'process'.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to make a picturebook | Nadia Shireen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Making picture books is a strange old business, readers. It's a unique little medium. As a picture book author and illustrator, I've only got 32 pages to introduce my characters, establish setting, build anticipation, insert a little mild peril and eventually reach some kind of satisfying conclusion.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Subscribe for fun with Art and Creativity - I make all sorts of crazy creations, every week!