THE FIRST RULE OF CLIMATE CLUB

Eager to address climate change, Connecticut eighth graders also confront economic inequality, racism, and politics.

Bearsville Climate Club is an innovative pilot program: Its students will study climate science and develop community-based initiatives to address environmental concerns. Observant young naturalist Mary Kate Murphy applied along with her bat-loving BFF, Lucy Perlman (both are White), but Lucy is now kept home by a mysterious illness. Initially lost by herself, Mary Kate warms to Mr. Lu, the club’s charismatic Chinese American teacher, who pairs her with composting enthusiast Shawn Hill, a Black student who commutes from Hartford to their better-resourced suburban school. As the students explore their priorities—for example, growing hemp, eliminating leaf blowers, addressing disposable fashion, ending meat consumption—they also learn about and discuss racism’s toxic legacy in their towns and families. Mary Kate is chagrined to learn that wealthier, predominantly White communities, including hers, outsource their trash to the incinerator polluting Shawn’s neighborhood. When the longtime mayor makes Shawn’s out-of-district address an excuse to invalidate the club’s application for a community grant, the students take action, which proves an energizing antidote to feeling helpless about the future. Fast-paced and often funny, this stand-alone companion to Dress Coded (2020) has a similar mosaic structure. Podcast transcripts, checklists, school assignments, and short vignettes showcase Firestone’s gift for illustrating how apparently unrelated issues intersect—or collide—while realistically portraying the voices of middle schoolers.

A passionate novel uplifting young activists.