Review: Earth Heroes

‘We can’t save the world by playing by the rules… the rules have to be changed.’

Greta Thunberg said that, and she’s right.

Earth Heroes is a brilliant collection of non-fiction stories about people who have been brave and changed the rules to save the world just a little bit more. 

Sir David Attenborough is included and so is Stella McCartney and Greta Thunberg, but, mostly, you won’t recognise the names of the people included in this book. 

That’s because they are people like you and me. 

They are people who wanted to make a difference or saw an opportunity to make a difference and seized it. 

Like Isabel Soares from Portugal who started a business selling the ugly fruit and vegetables that normally would end up in landfill. Like Andrew Turton and Pete Ceglinkski from Australia, who invented the Sea Bin to help remove rubbish from the oceans. 

I love that the stories are not written as a collection of facts but more as stories about these amazing people as they discovered or implemented their ideas to help the world in some small (or big) way.

Author, Lily Dyu ends the book with a conclusion chapter titled You too can change the world. She notes there are so many more activists that could have been included — even more people in the world who are making a difference and healing the world. Dyu reminds readers that individual actions really do make a difference, and she encourages readers to go out and enjoy the power and beauty of nature and our planet earth.

Earth Heroes is a timely and engaging non-fiction book for kids. The stories are easy to read, but they are powerful and interesting. This is a book you pick up and say ‘I’ll just read one more chapter,’ and then before you know it, you’ve read five because you want to learn about another amazing person in this world.

It’s a really inspiring book. It raises big issues and confronts the hard realities of climate change and human impacts on the environment, but it also shows us there is hope. We can fix things, and there are people out there grabbing opportunities and driving ideas that can lead to healing our world.

The book is text heavy, so it’s one for confident readers to tackle independently, but each story is short (around eight pages), and the language is simple and uncomplicated, making this a great book for adults to read to younger kids who can’t read it themselves.

Learn about twenty amazing earth heroes doing their part to help our planet, and I guarantee it will inspire you to join their ranks and make a difference in your own way — big or small.

Title: Earth Heroes
Author: Lily Dyu
Illustrator: Jackie Lay
Publisher: Nosy Crow, $19.99
Publication Date: 3 October 2019
Format: Hard Cover
ISBN: 9781788008525
For ages: 9+
Type: Junior Non-Fiction