'Carlos’s mother is a soldier, helping to protect the Amazon from the farmers, loggers and miners who are illegally destroying the precious rain-forest. It’s a dangerous job – and when she makes powerful enemies, Carlos is kidnapped to teach her a lesson. Taken deep into the Amazon, Carlos manages to escape his captors only to find himself trapped by fast-moving forest fires. Can he outrun the flames as the world burns down around him …?'
World Burn Down is the latest release from Barrington Stoke Books, an independent publisher with books designed to be accessible to younger readers who might have difficulty picking up a book. With larger print, pictures, tinted pages, and a font designed to help people with dyslexia, World Burn Down is instantly accessible to readers, and is a great way to encourage younger people into picking up a book.
The story follows Carlos, a young teen who's living with his mother in Manaus in Brasil. His mother works for IBAMA, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, an organisation that sup[ports the anti-deforestation of the Amazon. As one of it's soldiers, she's responsible for keeping the forests free of illegal loggers, farmers, and any other activity that would threaten the environment.
Because of her work, this means that both she and Carlos can become the targets of criminals who want to exploit the Amazon's resources, which is what happens one night when Carlos is alone in their apartment. With his mother working away he's by himself when a masked assailant breaks into their home and kidnaps him. Waking up some time later in the back of a jeep, Carlos discovers that he's been taken deep into the Amazon in order to coerce his mother into stopping her work.
However, due to the forest fires that are raging through the area, Carlos becomes separated from his kidnapper, and manages to make his way off into the jungle alone. With his hands bound and no idea where he is, he's left in a dangerous situation, one that's further complicated when a strange boy called Davi appears in the forest.
World Burns Down mixes together a story of desperate survival with some very real world facts about the Amazon, and the dangers it faces. Thanks to how Cole tells the story, moving Carlos from one extreme event to the other, he's able to slowly bring younger readers into a world that they might not be familiar with, and teach them a little about the plight that's threatening the Amazon right now.
The sad truth of the matter is that the world is on the brink, that we're getting closer and closer to the point where it'll be too late to stop the damage that humanity is causing. When that point comes it'll only be a matter of time before we've damaged our planet to the point where we wont be able to live on it anymore, and people will start to die out. This is a huge concept, and one that's absolutely terrifying; even for adults. But we're not at that point yet, we can still do something to change this. This is the message that this book is trying to make.
In the back of the book Steve Cole says that Carlos runs from danger to danger before he reaches the point where he realises running away won't work, and that action must be taken. This narrative mirrors us, it mirrors how this danger can seem so big and so scary that all you'll want to do is run away and hide, but that will only lead you further into danger. It's only through action that things can get better. This is a lesson that Carlos has to learn, and that this book can help to teach children.
Children are leading the fight to save our world. They're the ones who're making adults listen to them, who are going on strike and raising awareness. The most well known environmental activist in the world right now is Greta Thunberg, a teenage girl. These are the people who are going to be most affected by the damage being caused, who are going to grow up in a damaged world. By the time they're old enough to affect policy it will be too late, so they're having to step up and fight even earlier.
World Burn Down isn't packed with science, or plans on how to make a change, but it could help a child realise that this is a very real problem. It could make them aware that our world is on the brink, and usher them to take action. It's a children's story first and foremost, but it's also meant to raise awareness and inspire; and I think that's something that it will certainly do.
No comments:
Post a Comment