by Mark Sperring
illustrated by Natelle Quek
 
“If I were the world, I’d say Help Me Please!”
3 children go out in to the world, travelling across landscapes ravished by environmental disasters, including a plastic-riddled shoreline and an urban environment pumping out gasses. They witness animals fleeing deforestation and polar bears stranded on melting ice caps. The children imagine the world screaming for change and, as they do so, they summon -by megaphone and through their actions- a flood of people to lend a hand.
 
A cautionary environmental tale which, while it sidesteps the role of big business/governments to focus on the individual, also does well to convey the vastness of both the problem and the solution. Quek’s colourful illustrations maximises this, rushing in light, offering birds eye and tilting perspectives and generously stretching landscapes across double page spreads.
 
‘Nice pictures. Frequent casual images of spectacles, prosthetic leg, wheelchair, walking stick’ (June, Disability Activist, Letterbox Library reviewer). [1 of the 3 children has a prosthetic limb & their mother wears a headscarf. Children have different skin tones including 1 white, 1 with dark skin and natural hair and 1 with brown skin]. Age 4-7, Paperback 29pp
 
Themes: Disabilities