When We All Stopped

Featuring a QR code that leads to a TED-Ed animation with narration by Jane Goodall, this picture book debut by the Rivett-Carnac siblings is an unevenly executed parable of environmental renewal. Tom Rivett-Carnac, a UN climate policy strategist, contributes broadly abstract rhymes about a moment when humans suddenly recognize the damage they’ve done to the Earth, and collaboratively tend to the planet: “They heard or they felt/ where the whisper could lead./ And they looked with eyes wide/ at what that might mean,” reads one spread. Throughout, a seemingly magical barn owl—ostensibly representing nature’s “whisper”—interacts with the book’s protagonist, a long-haired, pale-skinned child amid a mostly light-skinned cast portrayed in sketchbook-style pencil-and-watercolor illustrations by Bee Rivett-Carnac. If the volume’s delivery is a bit unpolished, its portrayal of the planet’s dire straits (“For the trees had almost gone and the bees had almost gone”) will serve to remind young readers of the importance of changing behaviors and considering the natural world. Ages 5–10. (Jan.)