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Five fantastic female villains 13/05/24
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Whadayamean
Publisher: Red Fox
After God made the world, he wanted to visit it and see how it was getting on. So he put everyone to sleep, except for two children who were playing under a cedar tree. But God didn’t like the things he saw: the water was polluted, the trees were being cut down and the polar ice was melting: so he told the children to speak to the people with the money that cut down the trees and fouled the air; to tell the people who said they spoke for God to stop quarrelling; and to ask the people who stood by and did nothing about all of these things to change their ways.
John Burningham’s book was topical in 1999 when it was published, and remains so today. A call to action for children to persuade adults to make a better world, it’s a reminder that we are stewards of the earth and need to take care of it before it’s too late. The book does represent the Christian God as Creator of the world, and would be a good inclusion with a selection of books depicting creation myths, or alongside other books with a strong environmental message.
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John Burningham: a lifetime in books
John Burningham won our Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. John Burningham has written and illustrated over 30 utterly wonderful picture books, which have won countless awards and affectionate praise over the years.
