For the fiftieth
anniversary of
Earth Day, a mythic
framing of climate
change and one little
girl's response.
Alya and Atik are stars. Their job is to twinkle in the night sky over Earth, and for billions of years they do it well. Plants stretch toward them. Animals look up at them. And, eventually, humans gaze up at them and marvel. But then humans invent powerplants, factories, and cars, and smog pours into Earth's atmosphere. It becomes harder and harder for Alya and Atik to do their jobs — until, finally, the stars yell at Earth, and Earth feels sick and begins to shake, and things look pretty dire.
The clueless king's response is to command Earth to stop shaking. But a little girl named Axiom tells the king to hush, then tells humans what they must do to make the Earth feel better.
When the Earth Shook presents climate change to kids because it will be their job to help save the Earth. Bravo, Axiom! Keep using that huge megaphone until the earth no longer shakes! Axiom's list of instructions to humans — some wellknown and others new but critically important — appears in the back of the book.