Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

THE EARTH AND I – IS CLIMATE CHANGE MOVING TOO FAST FOR A NEW BOOK ON CLIMATE CHANGE?

The Earth and I
by James Lovelock (editor) and Jack Hudson (illustrator)
Taschen
2016, 168 pages, 8.5 x 10.9 x 0.8 inches (hardcover)

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It is obviously unfair to dismiss the entire contents of a book for a single tin-eared statement, but the clunker that comes near the end of The Earth and I by Gaia-theory originator James Lovelock is a doozy. The inexplicable passage follows a dozen essays by journalists, a Nobel Prize winner, and several Ivy League professors, who make a pretty good case for both the insignificance of human beings in the universe and their unique ability to end life as we know it here on Planet Earth. In an attempt, then, to give his shell-shocked readers a sliver of hope by celebrating the success of the Montreal Protocol, which banned chlorofluorocarbons in 1989, Lovelock crows about how these ozone-destroying compounds were replaced by hydrofluorocarbons, which, he writes, “are far less harmful to the planetary environment.”

Somewhere between the time Lovelock wrote those words and the publication of his book, hydrofluorocarbons were added to the Montreal Protocol’s list of banned substances – eliminating “less harmful” hydrofluorocarbons is expected to keep our warming planet’s temperature from rising by a full half-degree Celsius.

The inability of even an authority like Lovelock to keep pace with current events points out how quickly both the science and politics of climate change are a changing. In this light, understanding the holistic view of the planet’s processes – from the weather above us to the meaning of the geological history below our feet – has never been more important. The Earth and I delivers on these topics and more, while Jack Hudson’s engaging illustrations lure us in and invite the eye to linger. Many readers may well be tempted to do just that, but they shouldn’t – at last report, Greenland and Antarctica were melting at alarming fast and irreversible rates. – Ben Marks

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HAVE YOU SEEN MY TRUMPET? – A HUMOROUS RIDDLE AND WORD-PLAY BOOK FOR KIDS

Have You Seen My Trumpet?
by Michaël Escoffier (author) and Kris Di Giacomo (illustrator)
Enchanted Lion Books
2016, 48 pages, 7.9 x 12.3 x 0.5 inches (hardcover)

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The third book in Michaël Escoffier’s and Kris Di Giacomo’s word-play trilogy, Have You Seen My Trumpet?, brings the same silly love of language as their previous two stories, with a healthy dose of humor and animal antics.

What I love most about Have You See my Trumpet? (and its predecessor, Where’s the Baboon?), is that it makes a game of reading for both early- and pre-readers. Every page spread has a riddle of a question in which the answer is actually written. For example, the answer to “Who loves guacamole?” is Mole (see what they did there?), who is also pictured in a creature-filled beach scene cuddling an avocado. Though my preschooler doesn’t read yet, she does know some letter sounds and has begun using the answers to each riddle (written in the question in red) for practice. Because the answers are also illustrated, the book gives an added bonus of reading not just words, but facial expressions, body language, and other social cues.

A different author/illustrator team could have easily missed the mark with this book as the concept, at face value, could be terribly boring and numbingly basic. But the subtle narrative, exciting vocabulary, and clever illustrations make Have You Seen My Trumpet? a book that is fun for little kids and their grown-ups to read again and again. – Mk Smith Despres

02/25/25