Green children's books - an increasing number of parents are searching for them nowadays. The growing awareness of the need for an ecologically sustainable planet to bequeath to our children has fortunately permeated through to the mainstream.
Once upon a time, only a minority were urging a halt to the ever growing destruction of our natural habits.
Those of us actively involving in writing books which promoted a world view of living in harmony with the Earth were regarded as cranks.
I can vividly remember the scorn which certain people poured on me when I first started writing books for children out of my own world view of the need to live in harmony with Nature, not to rape and pillage her. (You'll never change anything. Why bother? Only politicians have power) Even those who I thought were on the same wavelength looked upon me as someone who wrote for children because I didn't have the brains to write for adults. (Very nice, Cara. But when are you going to write a serious book?) Yes, someone really did say that when I published my first novel for 8-12s, The Boy From the Hills, back in the 80s.
Outwardly I smiled. Inwardly, I screamed, “Why can't you see? Children's books are the most powerful means on the planet for change? Get across the need to care for the Earth to children whose minds are fresh and unsullied, encourage them in their natural desire to take care of their world and all its the life forms and when they grow up to be the custodians of the planet, we would see a real change from all the greed and wanton destruction."
Yes, it was an isolating position to be in, a lone writer and even worse, self-published back in those days. I was up against big business and the money-making ethos of the Thatcher days.
Fortunately - or perhaps, unfortunately as it is only because the threat from climate change and environmental catastrophe has reached a critical point - more people now share my vision and sense of urgency.
I have just republished my shorter works of fiction which feature children who take action against corporate greed to save their own landscapes as Talking Books on CD and now no one thinks I'm insane. (Well, actually, now it's only me who questions my sanity as when the printer screws up and my shoulders are racked with tension from hours at the computer, I wonder why the hell I do this as it is certainly not for the money! I actually lose money as in the time it all takes, I make my living teaching English as a Foreign Lanaguge, itself the most badly paid profession in the UK.)
So if you too have the vision to see that our children are the future - the one and only true hope for the survival of this beautiful planet - please see that the books they read are ones that do not preach, but rather seek to empower kids to save our world from a world view of harmony and caring for the Earth.
Cara Louise
Cara Louise Children's Books
http://www.caralouisebooks.bttradespace.com
http://www.caralouisebooks.com
