Global Warming, by Seymour Simon, for non-fiction Monday

I am a rather ardent environmentalist, busily bringing home other people's discarded recyclables etc. And rising sea levels are something I worry about in my professional life--many significant archaeological sites are on the coast, and are under threat. Not to mention the huge human cost.

I've told my children the story of Global Warming as I see it...but still I welcomed a new picture book on the subject, that I hoped would interest them, and educate them further-- Global Warming, by Seymour Simon (Harper Collins, 2010, for ages 5-9 with full-color photographs).

This is a very handsome book--it's something of a coffee table book for children, in that it has lots of large full page pictures, and none of the sidebars and little fact boxes that appear in so much non-fiction for the young. And, as far as the main points go, I thought it a fine introduction to the causes and effects of global warming.

I was in full agreement with Simon's points, which touch on such topics as the retreat of the glaciers, the melting of the polar ice, the risks of flooding, etc., but I had a hard time with his prose style, which seemed a bit stiff. Of the polar bears, for instance, Simon writes: "If the ice melts, their food supply will be cut off and this will impact their survival" (page 15); I myself think "impact" should be used this way only in bureaucratic writing (I use it all the time at work), and that in a kid's book, the bears should simply be allowed to "go hungry," or possibly even "starve to death."

And I know that the effects of human actions on global warming are still hotly debated, so I don't expect Simon to make every sentence a statement of fact, but there was some uncertainty where none was needed. Simon, for instance, writes "Atmospheric warming can cause a rise in ocean temperatures and place coral reefs in jeopardy" (page 20). I don't think, myself, that that "can" is necessary.

So although I applaud the existence of this book, with its helpful list of "things we can do" at the end, it's not all I had hoped it would be. Still, I think it would be a good one for parent and child to read together, with the parent explaining and elaborating, and making clear the connections between the text and the (mostly caption-less) photographs.

Other reviews at Eco-Libris and A Patchwork of Books

(disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher)

The Non-Fiction Monday round-up is at Check It Out today!