What kind of parent are you? Do you coddle your kids? Try to protect them from everything? Or do you tell it like it is?
I wrote An Angry Earth to scare kids into action. It’s bleak. It’s real. It’s frightening. We all have that picture book you can’t shake from your childhood, right? Mine is Watership Down. It was scary, about the survival of the fittest and not without controversy. Now, fast-forward to 2019 - what if that message were environmentally charged - featuring distressing content paired with disturbing illustrations? It would not include a happy ending – more consistent with the fairy tales of old. Entertaining, yet educational. Frightening, with redeeming qualities. The idea that a child can make a difference is in the epilogue. That the ending to An Angry Earth can be rewritten before it’s too late is inspiring and challenging. Hit them with the proverbial ugly stick and then lift them up so they can stand for something. Something important. Something necessary. Something like the environment.
I know this book is offensive to some, but I don’t care about that. I care about the environment and know there are parents (and kids) out there who want the same as me. I say love your children, but loving the world you’re leaving for your kids has got to be up there too. Otherwise, what will they think you thought of them when they’re gasping for breath?
An Angry Earth offers a terrifying end to a world whose overseers abused its resources to live more comfortably until the Earth had nothing left to give. Each concurrent devastating natural disaster is recorded by a single child left to bear witness.
