Our Environment:Everything You Need to Know. Written by Jacques Pasquet and and illustrated by Yves Dumont. Translated by Shelley Tanaka. Owlkids, 2020. $19.95 ages 9 and up

"Energy is what allows us
to work, move, and eat. We
need energy to carry out all
the activities of our daily lives.
For example, kicking a ball
requires energy. Without the
force of a kicking foot, the
ball will not move.

We eat food to accumulate the
energy that allows our muscles
and other body parts ... "

This is a very helpful, and well-designed resource for middle grade students who want to know and understand how our environment works, and what components are a part of the whole picture. Mr. Pasquet divides his work into five 'essential' parts: water, air, soil, energy and climate. He finishes the chapters by talking about the future, and adds a glossary, a list of selected sources, and an index. All will be very useful to readers.

He patterns each of the sections similarly, talking first about the component itself, then moving on to discuss each important issue that is essential to it. For water, he discusses oceans and fresh water, threats to both, how we use water and why we need it. He adds information in a microscope-shaped frames on many of the pages:

"In the middle of the North Pacific Ocean,
there is an island twice the size of Texas
made entirely of plastic. This huge whirlpool
of waste, called the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch, contains an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces
of plastic. Other garbage patches are drifting
in the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, and
the Western Pacific."

He follows this first section with the rest of the four, presenting each with the gathered information readers need to know to begin to understand the importance of our environment to each one of us. Mr. Dumont accompanies the information with colorful illustrations that help with understanding. The captions and labels are clear and helpful as the reader moves from section to section. It is a complicated subject, made more manageable because it is presented in a way that moves from one topic to another in a logical, step-by-step delivery of pertinent detail. The author answers pertinent questions posed as the book moves forward.

In the final section, he discusses actions that are being taken to help make the world a healthier place to be, and asks readers to take small steps to help make a difference. As we are now hearing reassuring reports of how the earth is healing in the past three months as the pandemic rages, it is pretty easy to see what an impact we humans are no longer having. We can change things. The more we know, the better prepared we are to move forward. 

"If we take of the Earth, it will also look after us."