NO WORLD TOO BIG

Profiles of 12 young climate activists and three grassroots groups, matched to painted portraits and original poems.

Similar in concept to No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History (2020), by the same creators, but taking a worldwide perspective, these entries highlight successful initiatives undertaken by school-age children in locales from the Marshall Islands to Ukraine and the Americas. Though Greta Thunberg—flashing her magnificent scowl in Bradley’s digital pastel—is the subject of one of the early entries, the other chosen activists will be mostly unfamiliar to readers. The poems are largely identified as free verse, such as one by Traci Sorell that acrostically spells out the name of Indigenous Brazilian tree planter Artemisa Xakriabá, but include examples of less common forms, too, such as a dokugin (or single-author) renga by David Bowles praising Mexica activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, and a Vietnamese-style lục bát by Teresa Robeson commemorating the work of biodiesel-promoting “Grease Police” on Bali. The editors spread prompts for both individual and collective action throughout and add capsule biographies of the poets and descriptions of each kind of poem at the close. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Inspiring examples for fledgling defenders of the environment.