A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids: Understanding Climate Change and What You Can Do About It [Paperback]

Julie Hall (Author), Sarah Lane (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2007 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

Kids, parents, and teachers will find the very latest information about the causes and effects of climate change, how people are working to reduce it, and ways kids and their families and schools can join the fight. A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids teaches and inspires through clear and accessible writing, engaging illustrations, hands-on activities, cool and hot facts, eco-hero features, and a hopeful and empowering message to get kids involved in confronting global warming and developing their best selves through such work. A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids is suitable for home and classroom use. It meets national science and social studies curriculum standards. Additional teacher resources are available.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Cool kids can only get cooler once they take in the vibrant and colorful vision of change in this book. Every page offers a morsel of insight relevant to kids' lives and the planet's future. Cool kids may have to fight their moms and dads for the chance to read it first! Once both generations catch the spirit of hope from this book, we'll change the nation--and the world. --U.S. Congressman Jay Inslee, author of Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy<br /><br />What an important book for kids and grownups to read. From down-to-earth descriptions of the greenhouse effect to what's really going on in our climate, A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids empowers readers with solid, no-nonsense information as well as giving them tools to make a difference. With clear, accessible text, rich images, and thought-provoking activities, this book is a must-have in any science classroom and is a powerful tool to put in the hands of all of our children. --Lynn Brunelle, Emmy-winning writer for Bill Nye the Science Guy and author of Pop Bottle Science<br /><br />What's so dangerous about global warming is that it leaves many people feeling hopeless, as if nothing they could do would matter. This fine book makes it clear that that's not the case, and from changing light bulbs to changing laws, it shows young people how they are able to help. --Bill McKibben, author of Fight Global Warming Now and End of Nature

What an important book for kids and grownups to read. From down-to-earth descriptions of the greenhouse effect to what's really going on in our climate, A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids empowers readers with solid, no-nonsense information as well as giving them tools to make a difference. With clear, accessible text, rich images, and thought-provoking activities, this book is a must-have in any science classroom and is a powerful tool to put in the hands of all of our children. --Lynn Brunelle, Emmy-winning writer for Bill Nye the Science Guy and author of Pop Bottle Science

What's so dangerous about global warming is that it leaves many people feeling hopeless, as if nothing they could do would matter. This fine book makes it clear that that's not the case, and from changing light bulbs to changing laws, it shows young people how they are able to help. --Bill McKibben, author of Fight Global Warming Now and End of Nature

About the Author

Julie Hall is the author of numerous science and social studies curriculum books for children. Her award-winning poetry has been anthologized and appeared in magazines, including The Nation and The Threepenny Review. She cofounded ProgressiveKid, a planet-friendly online company for kids and families. She is a regular contributor to On a Ledge, a blog about progressive parenting and green living. She lives on an island in Puget Sound.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Green Goat Books; 1st edition (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615155855
• ISBN-13: 978-0615155852
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 8.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #597,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but check the science!, March 30, 2008

By 

Carol Steinhart - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids: Understanding Climate Change and What You Can Do About It (Paperback)

This seems to be a fine and timely book. I confess I did not read it in its entirety, I only browsed the random selections offered online. However, I was greatly disturbed by the assertion in the very first selection offered that carbon monoxide is the ugly black smoke that comes from...whatever. It contrasts carbon monoxide with carbon dioxide, which is invisible, has no odor, etc. WRONG WRONG WRONG! Carbon monoxide is every bit as invisible and odorless as carbon dioxide! This is a very concerning error, and I hope there are no more of them to weaken the book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars TOO MANY MISTAKES!, June 5, 2010

By 

William G. Schoenfeld (Oregon) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids: Understanding Climate Change and What You Can Do About It (Paperback)

While the author's heart is in the right place, she has no business writing a science book. There are many many fundamental science errors in the book; even my high school aged son picked out a bunch of them. There is a thing called editorial review and and fact checking, neither of which the author sought out; it is a pity because there are many fine aspects of the book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Misguided, brainwashing youth on a complex topic, November 13, 2011

By 

Dan W - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids: Understanding Climate Change and What You Can Do About It (Paperback)

I looked through a copy of this book at the public library as I did not want to put money on the table for it. Arouund four years ago I had an encounter with our local primary school administrators after learning and seeing that the teachers had embarked on their own liberal mission of educating the very young on climate change using for one books and vdos from Al Gore. While the teachers wanted to nudge the young impressionable kids esp. less than 7-8 years old on the feel good importance of green public goods, it was no less than a propaganda indoctrination. When I challenged them on the science they became angry and "voted" me to not attend the public meetings. I told them that no matter how good intentioned they felt they were, what they were doing was not just misguided, it was wrong headed, that the "science" was policy led / driven and not objective and the science is not settled. I further elaborated on the original intention of the IPCC charge from the UNFCCC Rio climate convention (protocols) to be "to study climate change to determine causes of / means for mitigation of anthropogenic i.e., man-made global warming that was the primary (actually the only identified) cause threatening human kind. After some cool headed discussion they agreed that a) this was indeed circular reasons with the premise = the conclusion b) that the models used to reach such conclusions are deterministic and not falsifiable therefore impossible to draw such conclusions that manmade CO2 + other GHGs are the "primary" cause of climate change c) the problem is and will remain attribution of human causes as being the only important cause, d) the climate change "industry" is very big money to those participating including researchers (grants, tenure, professorships...), investors (think Solyndra, and other solar and wind companies, and big business such as GE, Shell, Exxon, BP all of whom reap billions of dollars in financial and other material benefits ..... I cannot think of any endeavor with government intervention / meddling / market distortion in which there is not unintended consequences including corruption, payouts, lobbying, incentives, preferred funding, tax breaks. Look at our congress and financial regulation of Dodd Frank.