Pedro Loves Saving the Planet is a wonderful book that follows Pedro, a boy passionate about the environment, spending the day at his school’s eco-cabin with his friends. The book is information-driven rather than plot-driven, and illustrates many ways to reduce our individual harm to the environment. During his time at the eco-cabin, Pedro and the reader learn of electric cars and various sustainable ways of transport, different renewable energy sources, ways to reduce waste, and the importance of various organisms including bugs. As well as providing information, educational facts, and resources, the book is great at providing top tips on what the reader can do to protect our planet.
This book is part of the Nature Heroes series which focuses on a group of friends who are passionate about nature and the great outdoors. The author of this series, Jess French, is a vet, zoologist and naturalist and has done an excellent job at providing education on an important matter without the doom-mongering you may find in other environmental resources.
Another notably lovely aspect of this book is that the children who have been illustrated in the book (by Duncan Beedie) feature a diverse mix of characteristics. The main character, Pedro, has hearing aids and his friends are a mix of ethnic backgrounds. This intentional choice to include these characteristics is a wonderful way to help children who don’t often get the representation they deserve to feel seen. Everyone should be able to see themselves in the pages of a book. It is also just as important for children who may not share these characteristics, to be introduced to the normality of them.
This book is suitable for KS1 And LKS2 and would be a fantastic book to read with your class on the topic of the environment. It is informative and helpful and pushes for change in a friendly way.
“What pledges will you make to help protect our planet? You’ll be surprised how easy and fun being a planet hero can be!”
Buy Pedro Loves Saving the Planet from Peters here.
Keep up to date with author Jess French on Instagram and Twitter, and check out more of Duncan Beedie’s illustrations on his website or Instagram.
