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Nanette Heffernan is a Certified Sustainability Consultant for schools in California and a major champion of the urgent need for humans to reduce emissions that drive climate change. Earth Hour is her debut picture book. Bao Luu grew up in Vietnam, dreaming of becoming an artist. Today he lives in the United States where he continues his illustration work. Earth Hour is his first picture book.
Once a year, all over the world, people celebrate the electricity we use in our daily lives by turning off lights in homes, offices, and famous monuments for a single Earth Hour.In time for next spring's Earth Hour, March 29, 2020, this admirable debut offers both the what and the why. Luu's cheery illustrations emphasize the worldwide nature of this event. The book begins with vignettes: examples of electricity use, including cozy home scenes, city streets, and the lit-up Earth as seen from space. Next, full pages and double-page spreads show illuminated buildings, cities, and internationally recognizable monuments at night. The scenes then move to the interior: bathtime, family games, and lights out. The international scenes reappear, without artificial light. The next to the last spread shows a single sleeping child (echoing Clement Hurd's great, green room ); the final one shows people of many colors and ethnicities (one using a wheelchair) carrying candles and lanterns on a starlit night: Alone we are one... // ...but together we have power. / United, we are Earth Hour. Heffernan's simple narrative runs across the pages, tying the story together. Her author's note recalls her surprise at seeing San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge go suddenly dark in honor of Earth Hour a few years ago, and a short final note connects energy use to global climate change. A timely invitation to participate in raising energy consciousness. --Kirkus Reviews This appealing picture book opens with children and adults using energy day and night, all over the world. Energy warms our soup, our bath water, and our homes. It brightens our cities and landmarks at night. But each year, at 8:30 on a Saturday night near the spring equinox, people around the globe turn out their lights in observance of Earth Hour. As the informative back matter states, that action signifies a pledge to live more sustainably and conserve energy all year long. Brief but effective, the even-handed text guides readers to scenes of people, usually families, often with visual clues in the background indicating locations on every continent. In the beginning, these scenes are brightly lit, but after Earth Hour begins, the same people and places are lit by the moon, stars, and aurora australis. Like the text, Luu's beautiful digital illustrations create a positive, peaceful tone, depicting a variety of people around the world, united in their determination to protect our shared planet by conserving energy. A hopeful picture book introducing Earth Hour. --Booklist
