"I wrote a lot of this book while covered in sweat, running circles around my neighborhood at five o'clock in the morning. That's because, once I had the idea for We The Future, it seemed only fair to write it like Sunny or Jonah would--with urgency."
Cliff Lewis had a damn good reason for being gripped by a sense of urgency. He was writing about the greatest threat human kind has ever been confronted with: the climate change that is burning 🔥 up our one and only planet. He wants people to realize that small personal changes are not enough to save the Earth. His We The Future is both highly engaging narrative and clarion call to action.
Jonah has just run up Martic Pinnacle to make a video and post it on social media and the climate apocalypse we're all hurting towards.
"If the storms don't get you, something else will. The weather is just the beginning. One breakdown will set off a hundred others. A drought makes a war makes a plague..."
Afterwards he feels an asthma attack coming on. He's dropped his inhaler. Fortunately he's saved by Sunny, a girl who claims to be from a truly apocalyptic future. She has a plan to save the planet. It hinges on Jonah being able to to organize all the kids in his middle school to pull off a climate march on a specific date only weeks away.
There are a lot of things her plan could go sideways. Jonah is not exactly skilled in communicating with other kids. And there are present and future villains on the scene. The present day ones are the big wigs of the Allister Energy Plant who don't want climate change awareness to get in the way of their profits. The future ones are a pair of scientists in hot pursuit of Sunny.
This is a great read for the end of summer approaching fall weeks we're in. We The Future is a truly engaging and suspenseful narrative and a call to students to take bold actions as they return to school.
I love what Lewis says in his author's notes.
"Saving the world starts when people like you begin assembling teams and demanding big changes to the destructive systems that threaten the future of life on Earth...With enough of you teaming up, you can force the adults in charge to start building a future that's less apocalyptic and more, well, futuristic."
On a purrrsonal note, there are some adults who get the big picture and are impatient with the timid and the big business owned. We're more than ready to join our kids in the bold actions that are necessary.
A great big shout out goes to the great diversity of activists we will need to turn things around.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
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