Stories for Kids Who Want to Save the World

Every person has a path in life, one that is intertwined with the fate of the earth. The life stories in this collection begin and end with that realization. First, as children, in different countries and eras, they witness how humans provoke environmental degradation. Each leads a life that not only minimizes their individual contribution to climate change at a local scale, but also that of their generation on a global scale. Then, as adults, they recognize the maturity and agency acquired at that moment which defined their lives. The biographies depict concrete initiatives that contribute to climate preservation, from a physicist who promotes organic farming techniques in India to a designer that only uses ecological fabrics and dyes in Italy. Rock climber Yvon Chouinard, biologist Rachel Carson, and designer Adriana Santanocito are included in this diverse cast of environmental activists. Together they show us that regardless of culture, class, or profession it is never too early or late to find your way to improve the world our children will inhabit. The stakes couldn’t be higher: Our house is on fire, as Greta Thunberg rightly said.

CAROLA BENEDETTO is a Hindologist, author, and playwright. She codirected Pierre Rabhi: Il mio corpo è la terra (2013), the first Italian documentary about Rabhi, one of the leading figures in the field of agroecology. She wrote the afterword to Pierre Rabhi’s La sobrietà felice (2013, Add Editore). She was the co-director of the festival, Per sentieri e remiganti, Il Festival dei viaggiatori extra ordinari (2007-2014 Turin). With Luciana Ciliento, she wrote La terra non è mai sporca (2018, Add Editore) and has been a regular guest on the television shows TV Overland ’19 (RAI 1) and Overland ’20 (RAI 1). LUCIANA CILIENTO is a translator and interpreter, as well as the co-director of the festival, Per sentieri e remiganti, Il Festival dei viaggiatori extra ordinari (2007-2014 Turin). She translated the DVD Pierre Rabhi: Il miocorpo è la terra, as well as surprising its editorial production and presenting it all over Italy. With Carola Benedetto, she wrote La terra non è mai sporca (2018, Add Editore) and has been a regular guest on the television shows TV Overland ’19 (RAI 1) and Overland ’20 (RAI 1).
ANTONY SHUGAAR is a writer and a translator from the Italian and the French. He has translated close to forty novels for Europa Editions, including his translation of Hollow Heart by Viola Di Grado, shortlisted for both the PEN and the ALTA Italian translation awards. He has received two National Endowment of the Arts fellowships.