Now how do I know that this book is the real thing, whose pages will have little hands turning them and whose message will have little minds exultant that, at last, someone is taking notice of what they are telling the grown-ups and, not only taking notice, but have actually written a book about all the things we should do to help the world?
Well, I know because I have those same small people around me who look with beady and disapproving eyes on the habit of leaving lights on, who rejoice when they can walk or scooter to school and who have started to check the plug on the Television.
All these things and more are in this lovely book. Turning the tap off when we clean our teeth, using both sides of the paper to draw on, and, oh, happy day, planting seeds in old yoghurt pots and watching them grow, which, for anyone, is a really brilliant thing to do. And then, as if to heap more joy on joy, to add the real happiness of unselfishness by being reminded to feed the birds in winter. Only just exactly what we want to do, right? Right!
It's a very nice book to hold and if you want to stroke it, which almost every child likes to do before they even so much as think of opening any book, then the silky smoothness of the cover is welcoming to small hands - and large ones, too, come to that.
This could have been such a dry book with its, 'Ten things I can do to help my world.' But it isn't dry at all. It's fresh and fun. Even the pages are not of uniform size but spring surprises with every turn. Here a tree, there a box, here a cardboard man, there a burst of exhaust smoke, here containers with holes cut out and there, at the end, a starry sky with a pull-down tab. I ask you. What more could anyone want?
The illustrations are fun, and so colourful and clear, even a reluctant artist would feel the urge to pick up a pen and copy them, especially the birds and the snow and the tree and...well, and everything.
Children always want to help, whether it's a stray dog or a hungry cat, or whether it is something that worriedly flees from them, and this friendly book will direct their hearts and energy towards a world that, if it is survive and prosper, needs all the help it can get.