E IS FOR ENVIRONMENT

Environmental concepts are introduced in an alphabetic format.

“A is for ATMOSPHERE”; “B is for BIODIVERSITY”; “C is for CONSERVATION”; and so on. Each single-page spread covers one letter of the alphabet and provides a one-sentence definition of the spotlighted, all-caps word. Unfortunately, the definitions themselves sometimes use words that children will need adults to define for them; for example, “QUARTZ” is “a mineral found in Earth’s crust,” but mineral and crust are never defined. Some of the artwork uses a double-page-spread composition to connect the ideas on the verso and recto pages. For example, a herd of zebra on one verso make their way (“M is for…MIGRATION”) to a wildlife refuge (“N is for…NATURE RESERVE”) on the recto directly opposite. Although this attempt to connect often quite unrelated concepts on facing pages is clever, the result is sometimes a stretch or cheesy, such as when “QUARTZ” crystals morph into paper trash for “RECYCLING.” The humans depicted in Rosa’s often panoramic digital illustrations are racially diverse with various skin tones and hair textures. One illustration shows a woman wearing a shalwar kameez. It is hard not to presume that some words were selected simply because they fit the alphabetical structure. The inclusion of the racial slur kaffir (“K is for…KAFFIR LILY”) is particularly unfortunate, especially since the accompanying illustration shows a dark-skinned Black child.

N is for…NOT RECOMMENDED.