One World: 24 Hours on Planet Earth

Planet Earth is always turning, and one whole turn takes 24 hours. Davies and Desmond begin this book by showing readers a globe, split into 24 segments that each represent one hour’s worth of the earth’s turn in a day.

Starting at midnight in London, Davies and Desmond show children what’s happening in the rest of the world at the same moment. For instance, when it’s midnight in Greenwich, it’s also 2am in the Luangwa Valley in Zambia, where elephants shelter under a tree, and 6.30am in Gaoligongshan National Nature Reserve in China, where gibbons begin their morning song.

Two children follow one moment across the world, observing wonderful animals and amazing landscapes and environments, but there’s a dark side too: pollution, rising temperatures, plastic in the oceans, poachers.

Finally, in a spread filled with significance, the children tell the other people sleeping to wake up: tomorrow is already here. In the background in this spread, we see city dwellers who have hung signs outside their windows to promote green energy and other pro-green messages.

This is a fascinating and profound book about climate change for young readers which both celebrates all the wonders of our home planet, and acts as a call to action to help save it.