Over the last two decades as the climate crisis intensifies, writings around the subject have not only helped translate the escalating gravity of the situation, but also brought stories that contextualise it. Similar trends reflect in the children’s literature space where there is a growing collection of books that help young readers understand the phenomenon, make sense of their changing world and think of ways to take collective action.

Someone Stop This Please! 

Soaring temperatures, melting glaciers, droughts, flash floods, forest fires, rising carbon in the atmosphere… our planet is changing swiftly. The climate crisis exposes the fragility in all beings, including us humans, whose lives are fundamentally tied to our environment and the larger ecosystem. In P.S. What’s Up with the Climate?, Bijal Vachharajani has her finger on the panic button of the climate crisis, highlighting the extent of this impending calamity. Rohan Chakravarty provides comic relief to the crisis through his cartoon collections Green Humour for a Greying Planet, Pugmarks and Carbon Footprints and Sea Ice? Now You Don’t! that use satire to highlight issues of global warming, wildlife crimes, human-animal conflict and other kinds of threats to the natural world. In Earth, Our Home, Anushka Ravishankar, Karthika Nair, Salil Chaturvedi and Sampurna Chattarji weave stories of the climate crisis through verses that give a voice to orangutans, the Gangetic dolphin, the Pondicherry shark and the Hasdeo Arand Forest in Chhattisgarh. These voices remind us of the havoc the climate crisis has created, and that saving the planet is in our own hands: 

Orange flames around the forest coil

Rows of trees aflame, even the soil

A fire so big, where do I go?

Near and far is a fiery glow

Gone my nest and my favourite trees

Ugly and horrific, someone stop this please!

In Shorewalk, educator and environment defender Yuvan Aves illustrates the crucial yet fragile ecosystem across the Indian coastline. Using photographs, he takes us through the fascinating lives of crabs, oysters and other sea creatures who contribute in maintaining this dynamic yet delicate land-sea balance that is under grave threat today. Ruhani Kaur​’s stunning photographs and Uddalak Gupta​’s text in The Grass Seeker take us to the Himalayas where melting glaciers have wiped aways grassy pastures. Room Singh takes his flock of goats and sheep to look for fresh grass through an old path taken by his clan, the Gaddi Shepherds. The lack of grassy land is driving the new generation of this tribe to the cities, showing how the climate crisis is so intrinsically linked to loss of occupation and identity.

Planet Protectors

Amidst the worsening crisis, stories of hope come from those who continue to fight against the tide and work on the ground to educate, organise, protect and agitate against human greed that lies at the core of this climate emergency. In 10 Indian Champions who are Fighting to Save the Planet, Bijal Vachharajani and Radha Rangarajan write about the inspiring lives of people who are striving to solve the most pressing problems contributing to climate change. 

Jadav and the Tree Place, written and illustrated by Vinayak Varma, tells the story of Jadav ​‘Mulai’ Payeng, who at the age of sixteen noticed a riverbank devoid of all plant-growth, where snakes had been washed up to wither and die. This inspired him to spend the rest of his life growing an entire forest on an island in the Brahmaputra. The Spring of Life: How Moirangthem Loiya Saved a Forest by Lavanya Karthik and Canato Jimo brings alive Manipur-based Loiya’s journey – the sorrows and joys of creating a thriving forest in Punshilok. Lavanya Karthik and Rajiv Eipe​’s Lady Tarzan! Jamuna Takes a Stand turns the spotlight on another forest protector, Jamuna Tudu from Jharkhand, who fights both the timber mafia and the Naxals with equal might. 

Highlighting another story of battling habitat degradation is Neeraj Vagholikar and Niloufer Wadia’s Saving the Dalai Lama’s Cranes where a young monk and his friends from Arunachal Pradesh are faced with a sudden challenge: the home of their beloved black-necked crane is in danger. How they navigate the tough terrain to solve this problem makes for an inspiring real-life story. 

Young Climate Warriors 

Children are not mute spectators, but active changemakers in literature that puts them centre stage. In Vishaka George​’s Ammini Against the Storm, little Ammini’s life in Wayanad is disrupted by a sudden storm and flash floods. The deluge destroys her family’s farmlands. The sustainable ways in which Ammini handles the crisis forms the crux of this story, which has been inspired by real-life events of the 2018 Kerala floods. 

Ten-year-old Anoshqua wants to fulfil her beloved grandpa’s last wish – to see rain. The problem is, she herself hasn’t ever seen it! The Little Rainmaker by Roopal Kewalya is a story of hope, power and the fierce determination of a little girl to fulfil her grandfather’s wish in the face of an acute environmental crisis.

In Bhairavi Parekh​’s The Water Catchers, eleven-year-old Chintu who lives in water-deprived Mumbai finds himself in his ancestral village plagued by empty taps. Through a chance meeting with a shy girl who possesses mysterious powers, he discovers the magic of water and its ability to transform lives.

As we write, read and discuss these books, we hope that such literature will help readers understand, care, initiate action and reshape our relationship with the natural world gripped as it is by a climate calamity.

Bibliography

1. P.S. What’s Up with the Climate? (Pratham Books)
2. Green Humour for a Greying Planet (Penguin)
3. Pugmarks and Carbon Footprints (Penguin)
4. Sea Ice? Now You Don’t! (Penguin)
5. Earth, Our Home (Pratham Books)
6. Shorewalk (Tulika)
7. The Grass Seeker (Pratham Books)
8. 10 Indian Champions who are Fighting to Save the Planet (Duckbill)
9. Jadav and the Tree Place (Pratham Books)
10. The Spring of Life: How Moirangthem Loiya Saved a Forest (Kalpavriksh)
11. Lady Tarzan! Jamuna Takes a Stand (Ektara)
12. Saving the Dalai Lama’s Cranes (Kalpavriksh)
13. Ammini Against the Storm (Karadi Tales) 
14. The Little Rainmaker (Penguin)
15. The Water Catchers (Hachette)
16. Tsunami (Tara)
17. A Cloud Called Bhura (Talking Cub)
18. When Fairyland Lost its Magic (HarperCollins)
19. So You Want to Know About the Environment (Rupa Publications) 
20. Savi and the Memory Keeper (Hachette)
21. Tiger Boy (Duckbill)
22. The Enduring Ark (Tara)
23. We Hope: Children on Climate Change (Pratham Books)
24. My Big Book of Global Warming (Katha)
25. Our Beautiful World (Pratham Books)

About the author:

Lakshmi Karunakaran currently leads Indian Language Publishing at Eklavya Foundation, and works on community projects with the Foundation of Arts and Health India. In her previous engagements, she headed the Parag Initiative of the Tata Trusts and founded the Buguri Community Library Program at Hasiru Dala. She believes in the transformative power of good children’s literature and the potential of vibrant libraries in reshaping entire communities. She can be reached at lakshmikarunakaran@​gmail.​com