Harold the Iceberg Melts Down by Lisa Wyzlic

Abstract

Reviewed by: Harold the Iceberg Melts Down by Lisa Wyzlic Kate Quealy-Gainer, Editor Wyzlic, Lisa Harold the Iceberg Melts Down; illus. by Rebecca Syracuse. Feiwel, 2023 [40p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781250830623 $18.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R 6-8 yrs Harold already tends toward anxiety, so it doesn’t help when he watches a documentary about climate change and the melting icebergs—he is, after all, a head of iceberg lettuce, and now he’s quite certain he, too, will melt. None of his ideas to stop his supposed warming work out: the way to the freezer is blocked, the back of the fridge is sticky and gross, and the sunglasses and fake mustache are really just the last-ditch effort of a now panicking Harold. His friends finally get him to calm down with some breathing exercises, but the fact remains that the icebergs are melting, even if Harold is not—he can’t let his nerves get the best of him if he’s going to come up with a real plan to help his “cousins.” Wyzlic tackles eco-anxiety at a kid-friendly level, and cartoony Harold and his fridge friends soften the reality of a crisis that even younger readers are beginning to realize as dire. Despite Harold’s misread on his own danger in the iceberg situation, the book doesn’t mock or downplay his anxiety, but it does emphasize that worrying to the state of paralysis isn’t going to do anyone any good: “Harold was so focused on his impending doom that they couldn’t get through to him.” The breathing exercises seem a little trite in the face of the actual crisis, but there’s very much a “keep calm and carry [End Page 169] on” message here that, when paired with the real actionable items provided at the end of the book, gives some amount of agency to the generation that will be most impacted by the changing climate. Copyright © 2022 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois