Why Children Need to Read About Plants at a Time of Climate Change

Abstract

We begin developing our relationship with and for Nature during childhood, and over the last 20 years research has advanced our understanding of human relationships with Nature. However, a focus on human-animal relationships dominates environmental understanding, including through the medium of literature, especially children’s literature. It is critical that children know, engage with and care for plants at this time of climate crisis and this could be facilitated through climate literature. The popularity of children’s climate fiction has increased dramatically in the last few years due to what publishers are calling the ‘Greta Thunberg effect’ – resulting in many more books now available that aim to empower young people to save the planet. However, in these texts, we argue that there is still an emphasis on animal and human consequences of climate change rather than on those of plants and the agency of plants (or lack thereof). We argue it is imperative that children understand not just the importance of human-animal relationships in regard to the climate crisis, but also the fundamental role of botanical life forms in preserving life on Earth. Taking three recently published children’s books of fiction we consider how botanical encounters are represented in these texts, and how this can undermine the perceived environmental importance of plants and people’s relationships with them. Informed by the recent work of Lykke Guanio-Uluru (2020), we consider the position plants play in these examples of contemporary children’s climate literature and encourage a more critical consideration of the place of plants.