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A review by safekeeper
La skogen leve by Nora Dåsnes
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Such a wonderful and inspiring book. It was so good to see the gang from "Cross My Heart and Never Lie" again (and it's interesting that the book this time follows Bao), and this is still a beautiful depiction of tween-hood. The main characters go through their share of drama, clumsily romance boys, wonder what it will be like to hit puberty and start middle school, and are still young enough to 'fight' with sticks over their base in the woods.
Only, lately the rains have been worsening, making the stream in the woods harder and harder to cross, and the news are full of temperature and precipitation records being broken and dire predictions about the worsening climate crisis. Worst of all, Bao feels she is the only one who really cares. Her friends seem more apathetic and although Bao represents the school's students in a panel with the school administrators, they tend to neither listen to her nor care much about the climate. In fact, she is angry with the school for hypocritically teaching kids about climate change on the one hand, but at the same time not encouraging more action than 'drawing cute animal pictures' of endangered species like polar bears.
To her horror, the school administrators and representatives from the municipality decide to tear down half the protagonists' beloved forest to expand the school parking lot, because there are so many parents driving their kids to school, especially during rain, making the trip to school more dangerous for the pupils who still walk. When Bao tries to point out that the problem is too many parents giving their kids rides in the first place, the adults barely hear her, and the proposition for a new parking lot is approved with a shocked and furious Bao as the only dissenting voter.
Bao decides to act to save her beloved forest through any means she can think of. Her friends may be apathetic about action against climate change, but they get on board pretty quickly when they realize their forest is threatened, and the book teaches the basics of activism (including that adults may not be as useless as they first appear) and advocates using social media such as TikTok, writing to local media, starting petitions, and even mild civil disobedience like sit-ins. It also uses past generations' protests as a paralell when we learn that several of the kids' parents were also activists in their youth. Throughout the book we also learn about climate crisis when the kids compile a 'report', complete with helpful illustrations, to the adults, even though this actually feels a bit superfluous as the basics of climate change should be well-known to everyone at this point, and the book even gets the greenhouse effect wrong (it affects radiation from the earth, not rays from the Sun). I would rather it tackled common arguments from climate change deniers.
All in all, this is a really inspirational book about participation in local democracy. The pacing really works, we can feel Bao's anger when she talks to her friends and sends them messages, and I love that rather than tackling climate change as a whole, it makes the stakes something near and close, the forest we've already been introduced to in the first book. This makes the kids' fight a lot easier to relate to than if it had just been a fight against nebulous concepts like climate change and political inaction. There has been some pearl-clutching about how 'the book teaches children they should break the law!', but there is no vandalism or violence in the book.
All in all, 5 out of 5, hoping there's more books about Tuva, Bao, and the gang.
Only, lately the rains have been worsening, making the stream in the woods harder and harder to cross, and the news are full of temperature and precipitation records being broken and dire predictions about the worsening climate crisis. Worst of all, Bao feels she is the only one who really cares. Her friends seem more apathetic and although Bao represents the school's students in a panel with the school administrators, they tend to neither listen to her nor care much about the climate. In fact, she is angry with the school for hypocritically teaching kids about climate change on the one hand, but at the same time not encouraging more action than 'drawing cute animal pictures' of endangered species like polar bears.
To her horror, the school administrators and representatives from the municipality decide to tear down half the protagonists' beloved forest to expand the school parking lot, because there are so many parents driving their kids to school, especially during rain, making the trip to school more dangerous for the pupils who still walk. When Bao tries to point out that the problem is too many parents giving their kids rides in the first place, the adults barely hear her, and the proposition for a new parking lot is approved with a shocked and furious Bao as the only dissenting voter.
Bao decides to act to save her beloved forest through any means she can think of. Her friends may be apathetic about action against climate change, but they get on board pretty quickly when they realize their forest is threatened, and the book teaches the basics of activism (including that adults may not be as useless as they first appear) and advocates using social media such as TikTok, writing to local media, starting petitions, and even mild civil disobedience like sit-ins. It also uses past generations' protests as a paralell when we learn that several of the kids' parents were also activists in their youth. Throughout the book we also learn about climate crisis when the kids compile a 'report', complete with helpful illustrations, to the adults, even though this actually feels a bit superfluous as the basics of climate change should be well-known to everyone at this point, and the book even gets the greenhouse effect wrong (it affects radiation from the earth, not rays from the Sun). I would rather it tackled common arguments from climate change deniers.
All in all, this is a really inspirational book about participation in local democracy. The pacing really works, we can feel Bao's anger when she talks to her friends and sends them messages, and I love that rather than tackling climate change as a whole, it makes the stakes something near and close, the forest we've already been introduced to in the first book. This makes the kids' fight a lot easier to relate to than if it had just been a fight against nebulous concepts like climate change and political inaction. There has been some pearl-clutching about how 'the book teaches children they should break the law!', but there is no vandalism or violence in the book.
All in all, 5 out of 5, hoping there's more books about Tuva, Bao, and the gang.