My book review of 'How to help a hedgehog and protect a polar bear' by Jess French

by Jess French

While this book is aimed at children aged seven upwards, we can all feel overwhelmed by the huge issues facing our planet. How can we prevent the glaciers melting when we live in Suffolk? How can recycling our yoghurt pots reduce CO2 emissions?

This book brings a clever but gentle prompt for all of us to take responsibility for the choices we make in our daily lives, and to see how the changes we make can be instrumental in helping our near neighbours as well as the world as a whole.

On each page there are illustrations of habitats and wildlife, providing interesting facts and figures. There are then some actions which are easy to understand and to adopt and which can bring significant benefits, some which are immediately apparent, others which have more deep-seated consequences.

The young readers are told why it's important to have dogs on leads in the countryside, how to take plastic-free lunchboxes, why we should look after trees, how to be frugal with paper, among many other ideas. They are also told where they might go for more information and how they might like to support wildlife protection initiatives.

It's a beautiful resource full of practical and inspiring ideas to help the reader to feel equipped and enabled. It's a book to turn to time and again, whatever age.

Date of this review: September 2021
Book publication date: 2nd August 2018