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Review: Making Waves by Albert Bates

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Making Waves by Albert Bates

Making Waves: Saving Our Oceans
Albert Bates
Groundswell
Published August 5, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Making Waves

This book provides an educational and engaging look at the interdependent relationship between the oceans and ourselves, and what is needed to protect the oceans’ ecosystems. Young adults learn about a variety of human activities that affect water temperature, oxygen levels, acidity, ice density, sea levels and sea-life populations.

Bates explains how measures such as blue carbon initiatives to prohibit deep-sea mining, replanting mangroves, protecting salt marshes and seagrasses and restoring coral reefs have benefits that have a multiplier effect–and that it is more cost-effective and financially rewarding to do these now rather than later.

My Review

I’ve read a couple of other books on the ocean, climate change, and the growing amount of trash and pollution in the world’s oceans. It’s always interesting to me to compare the books, because those are such huge topics. There are always places the information overlaps and places it builds on or adds to my current understanding. That definitely happened here.

MAKING WAVES focuses on the ocean (as opposed to books that talk about climate change or pollution and how those impact forests or rivers). There were lots of things I either didn’t know or things that the book broadened my perspective on or put in a more complete context. I had never heard or thought about, for instance, the way that the noise of ships or mining or even sonar can harm marine animals. Certainly I’d thought about how oil spills from mining could cause harm. I had never thought about the impact of the noise, though. So that way an interesting thing to think about.

I liked that the book included some information about microplastics and perspective on cleanup efforts and the futility of focusing strictly on cleaning up plastic if we ignore the problem of plastics being produced so broadly and ending up in the ocean in the first place.

For a short book, MAKING WAVES packs a big punch. It breaks down complex information in a way that’s easy for young readers to read and digest. The pages feature gorgeous, compelling photographs as well as diagrams that illustrate the points Bates makes in the narrative.

On the whole, I think this is a great book for middle school science classrooms or libraries. I think it would make an excellent resource for homeschool students as well, or any young reader interested in knowing more about the environment, specifically the oceans.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Representation
The book is about the oceans and marine life.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of MAKING WAVES in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Story of More by Hope Jahren

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The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here (Adapted for Young Adults)
Hope Jahren
Delacorte Press
Published November 2, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Story of More

Hope Jahren, acclaimed geochemist and geobiologist, details the science behind key inventions, clarifying how electricity, large-scale farming, and automobiles have both helped and harmed our world.

Jahren explains the current and projected consequences of unchecked global warming, from superstorms to rising sea levels, resulting from the unprecedented amounts of greenhouse gases being released into our atmosphere. The links between human consumption habits and our endangered existence are very real, with consequences leading to a crossroads of survival and extinction.

Still, Jahren maintains that our ever-broadening science-based knowledge can help us counter this dilemma. The eye-opening information provided in THE STORY OF MORE will help readers understand the path we must take. If we collectively make informed choices now, Jahren reassures us, our future can be as bright as we imagine it can be.

This young adult adaptation of acclaimed geochemist and geobiologist Hope Jahren’s highly respected nonfiction work is the perfect book for those interested in learning about climate change and how they can contribute to creating a more sustainable future.

My Review

One of the cool things about this book is that it doesn’t strictly talk about climate change in terms of the effects we see today and the industrial causes. I like that the author kind of zooms out and gives a chapter by chapter overview of things. She discusses things like the way human population has changed over thousands of years or the ways in which farming has evolved. Each topic is discussed in only a few pages but paints a much more complete picture of how we got to where we are with carbon levels, food waste, and pollution.

I also like that the book takes time to focus on what individuals can do to make a difference. The issue of Climate Change can be really overwhelming because it feels like the most significant changes have to be made at an industry or government level in order to make a real impact. This doesn’t address how to make those changes specifically. It does look at what meaningful things individuals can do and how making those changes can cause ripple effects across our lives and the lives of others.

One of the most shocking things that the book discussed that I hadn’t heard before actually had to do with the Winter Olympics. The games need a specific environment to be played– snow slopes for instance. The number of places which have the ability to host the games has shrunk considerably since the games began. That was something I hadn’t really specifically thought about before.

I think readers who enjoy books about environmental issues will definitely want to check this one out. If you liked TRASHING THE PLANET or GIRL WARRIORS, then be sure add THE STORY OF MORE to your reading list!

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
The author is a white woman in her 50s.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THE STORY OF MORE in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He

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The Ones We’re Meant to Find
Joan He
Roaring Book
Published May 4, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Ones We’re Meant to Find

Cee has been trapped on an abandoned island for three years without any recollection of how she arrived, or memories from her life prior. All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay. Determined to find her, Cee devotes her days to building a boat from junk parts scavenged inland, doing everything in her power to survive until the day she gets off the island and reunites with her sister.

In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara is also living a life of isolation. The eco-city she calls home is one of eight levitating around the world, built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least a third of their time in stasis pods, conducting business virtually whenever possible to reduce their environmental footprint. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.

Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But as the public decries her stance, she starts to second guess herself and decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own.

My Review

Sisters and secrets– two of my favorite things in a book! I had been hearing about this book online for a long time, and could not resist reading it. The story, like the back cover copy suggests, gives each sister’s point of view. In Kasey’s point of view, we see the past, things that happened months before Cee begins telling her story.

I loved both girls’ characters so much. I also loved U-me, the dictionary and questionnaire rating robot. It might not seem like a bot that follows Cee around defining words and rating her declarative statements on a scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree would add a huge amount to the story, but it really does! U-me is the best.

As the description promises, this is a story with twists and turns, the kind where you have to keep going back and reevaluating things you took for granted earlier in the book. Where new information changes your perception of what’s already happened. I love stories like that. It’s also a story that explores relationships and secrets and how some secrets can destroy a relationship if you let them.

I really enjoyed THE ONES WE’RE MEANT TO FIND. I loves its layers and the pull between the two sisters. Readers who enjoyed WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart or FRAGILE REMEDY by Maria Ingrande Mora should check this one out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Both main characters are Asian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some nudity. Kissing between boy and girl. Two scenes give brief descriptions of sex.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A boy stops a thief by attacking him. A girl gets injured in the episode. A boy tries to choke someone. References to a terrorist attack.

Drug Content
Some descriptions of drinking and using drugs (though they appear to be legal drugs) at a bar and party.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of THE ONES WE’RE MEANT TO FIND in exchange for my honest review.