http://www.babylaurenandtheodore.com/

Particularly cool (pardon the pun) since a portion of the sales will go to Inuit Tribal Councils to help in their fight to save irreplaceable Arctic regions…I’m planning on reviewing it as a gift book pick for ECP and for Shaping Youth in time for the holidays!

Thank you so much for taking the time to review my book. I appreciate your comments. I would like to share with you some of my thoughts regarding your final paragraph of your review.

RISING ABOVE GLOBAL WARMING is targeting readers ages 4-9. The book is not a nonfictional account of global warming. This book is a fictional story with scientific terms on global warming interwoven throughout. The cause/effect/solution is accurate and scientifically correct. My children book is designed to be the first book parents use to introduce their child to global warming.

I introduced the fish with salt shakers to lighten the topic a bit. Initially, the ice that melts will introduce fresh water into the oceans and upset the balance of that ecosystem. So in essence on the short term the fish were trying to help fix their habitat that man had started to destroy with the burning of fossil fuels. The fish had salt shakers to imply that creatures will do whatever necessary to survive. We both know that fish wouldn’t use salt shakers but when tackling a complicated and scary topic, I wanted to add some humor. I was hoping the parents could use this as a point of discussion on fact and fiction.

This reduced salinity would disrupt the thermo-haline pump, which controls the currents and affect the weather across our globe. Unfortunately, I have a limited number of pages to deal with when writing a children book. I didn’t want to introduce this terminology considering the age group I was targeting. Also, given enough time and if global warming continues to heat the earth evaporation actually would increase the salinity in the oceans over the long term.

Your view on the end of the book that I am misleading children is interesting and you were the first person with that perspective. I must share with you that I wanted a happy ending for the book. I did state that Terra was saved, however my thinking was that the effects of global warming can be reversed. I showed this reversal with the returning of the Terra-birds.

Your comment on the returning of lost ice is true and upon further reflection I can see how you could draw that conclusion with the picture of the ice and snow gone on the mountain tops. At no point in my book did I say that all the ice at the poles were gone. The ice caps in the book were melting at an alarming rate; hence the response of planting trees and replacing fossil fuels with wind power was two of many solutions for reversing the effects of global warming. This reversal would slow the ice melting at the poles.

I had one parent share with me that wind power wouldn’t work in some parts of the country and it would have been better if I went with solar power as a solution for global warming. Again, the pages of a children book are limiting and as an author I had to make decisions on what to include and what I wanted to accomplish.

You were the first person to draw the conclusion that the book was misleading. Believe me–I did not intend that to happen. So, when Terra was saved the best scenario was to begin to reverse the effect of global warming. Children need to have hope that something can be done and accept their role tackling future challenges.

RISING ABOVE GLOBAL WARMING is designed to be the first book parents would use to introduce their child to this important topic. This is why there is a glossary at the end of the book with fun games to help reinforce those educational terms. The other key objective of the book was not to scare the child and give them hope for the future. I am hoping the positive approach will help empower children to want to get involved in tackling this key environmental issue as adults.

I respect your perspectives and comments on my book. Like I said, you were the first with that conclusion and I wanted to share with you some insights as an author when I wrote this book.

Thanks again for the time you took to review my book and the comments made. You have some great sites and good luck with the fine work you are doing.

B. J. DeFrancesco