There is an emerging genre (sub-genre?) of fiction called climate fiction (cli-fi.) It's often speculative, ranging from dystopia leaning to science fiction or fantasy leaning. Regardless of where it falls in the other genres, cli-fi books always focus on environmental damage and human's involvement in it - usually them trying to save it as well as how they've destroyed it.

Brightstorm a sky ship adventure is an amazing book! I honestly was not expecting it to be this good when I first got it but it was incredible! It’s about twin siblings, Arthur and Maudie Brightstorm who’s father, an explorer has died on a failed attempt to reach south Polaris. They stay to live their housekeeper, Mistress Poacher, but she has absolutely no interest in the twins and simply sells them to Mr and Mrs Beggins, poor people who treat the twins very badly and make them servants! The children live in the slumps (slums) until one day they find an advert for a race to claim South Polaris for the 2nd time. They decide to join Miss Harriet Culpepper, who is also an explorer just like their father, and her team (which includes Felicity Wiggety) on a race to South Polaris. Many exciting things happen to the crew of the Aurora sky ship as they journey deep into the unknown. Will the Aurora team reach South Polaris first? Or will they be beaten to it by Madame Eudora Vane on board her sky ship Victorious? Read the book to find out! There is something truly inspiring, heartwarming, epic and wonderfully educational about Vashti's new book, Crowfall. Without a doubt it is her best children's book to date (in my humble opinion), because the prose is - at the same time - remarkably sparse yet entirely with a strength of authorial voice that all writers dream of achieving!Vashti Hardy is an award-winning United Kingdom writer of children’s books. She taught in primary school for some time and has much interest in children’s stories. She holds a first-class honor teaching degree in English and an MA in creative writing from the University of Chichester. Tropes. Orphan twins are very tropey. Due to societal norms, most of the time the boy is the intellectual, engineer one and the girl is the more dreamy, book nerd. This one flips that around, which I like. I would have liked to see more of that in the story with the plot. Takeaways

It was equally exciting and sad. Arthur and Maudie have been my trusted companions and have grown into young adults by the end of Firesong, but I’ve loved delving into another aspect of the world. One of the thrilling thing about creating a fantasy world is that there are any number of possible stories to be told in any number of locations and points in time. I love the environmentalist theme of the story. I normally don’t really love political statements, but the environmental issue is near and dear to my heart. (I have a hippie mom to thank for that.) I love nature and I want my great grandchildren to enjoy it as much as I do. Anyhow, Maud and Arthur are on a ship powered by water instead of pitch. This gives them an advantage in the race south because water is a readily available resource, unlike pitch. They also visit a city that has converted to hydro and wind power instead of pitch and has experienced great success. Hmmm. A parallel to any current issue? I think so! What can we Learn from Hardy? With bold and bright illustrations, this book is a great way to find out about some unsung heroes and to celebrate the achievements of women around the world. 3. The Polar Bear Explorers' Club byAlex Bell, illustrated by Tomislav Tomic It’s a fascinating and compelling adventure with lively landscapes and fantastic characters of the author’s vividly imagined world. The characters are incredible, with Arthur being sensitive and intuitive while Maudie is clever and has a diversified mind. Harriet, on the other hand, is an unflappable explorer.

They are devastated by the news and confused, and they don’t know what to believe. After investigation, the Lontown Geographical Society has found Ernest Brightstorm guilty of destroying the expedition of Eudora Vane, his competitor. A mysterious clue makes the twins question the story they’ve just been told. To discover the truth, they’ve to go on a lifetime journey. Lontown for London (I don’t know if this is what was meant, but I couldn’t unmake this connection in my mind.) It drew me in instantly as a fabulous call to adventure and I began to consider what sort of person would reply to such an advert. What if two children, a boy and a girl, replied? They would need an extremely compelling reason. Then Arthur and Maudie Brightstorm arrived in my imagination and I started building their story and the situation with their explorer father and the history of their mother. I decided on a fantasy world with similarities to our own, yet with many more places waiting to be discovered, populated by humans and creatures just as intelligent called sapients. The world of the Wide was born. Thus began my reading of Brightstorm. Perhaps that is why I was not thrilled with the beginning of this book. I didn’t get swept up in the steampunk craze that began a number of years ago. I admire the creativity in all the costumes and the art, but not many of the stories enticed me to read them. But the cover on this one…Did you see the cover on this book?? It is simply beautiful! The two end up answering an advertisement to assist a crew in new exploration, hoping to discover the truth. They escape slavery, join a ragtag crew of a Skyship captained by Harriet Culpepper, and start a journey to South Polaris to retrieve their father’s reputation and investigate what happened to their father during the expedition.

CROWFALL falls squarely into the cli-fi sub-genre, probably sci-fi leaning rather than fantasy (though, like all Vashti Hardy's books, it's in that science-fantast blurred spot between them.) Orin discovers his leaders are exploiting the island they live on, and have damaged it so badly that it's about to fail. Rather than trying to solve the problem (because that means giving up their benefits), they're going to abandon ship. A pretty easy to understand allegory for our world!Discover an explorer of a different kind in this beautiful and captivating wordless picture book. A lonely girl draws a magic door on her bedroom wall and escapes through it, then uses her red marker to create things to help her on her way, such as a balloon and a flying carpet. A great reminder that we are all explorers of our own imaginations. 7. Survivors byDavid Long, illustrated by Kerry Hyndman I've included this as my last choice because it so perfectly shows how being an 'explorer' is as much about the simple joy found in discovering the everyday outside your doorstep as it is the great feats of exploring the wider world. Space explorers, whether on the ground as scientists or the astronauts themselves, are a hive of amazing inspirational stories.This book tells the stories of 50 women who have contributed to space exploration from the past to modern day.

Amelia Earhart was an inspiration for the character Harriet Culpepper in Brightstorm, and this book makes Earhart's story accessible to the young reader. The tale of this intrepid aviator is simply told alongside vivid illustration, and travels from her childhood dreams to her achievements and eventual disappearance. The author is an alumni member of The Golden Egg Academy, and her books are published in the United Kingdom by Scholastic. With inventive touches to the story such as pygmy dinosaurs and frost fairies, the story landscape is easy to imagine and get lost in. It's punctuated with some stunning illustrations by Tomic which add beautifully to the atmosphere. 4. Tom Crean's Rabbit: A True Story from Scott's Last Voyage byMeredith Hooper,‎ illustrated by Bert Kitchen This book is based on the diaries of those who sailed to the South Pole on board The Terra Nova with Captain Scott in 1910. In the story, a member of the crew, Tom Crean, searches for somewhere on the ship where his pet rabbit can make her nest and have her babies. The twins Arthur and Maudie Brightstorm receive the news that their father has just passed on while attempting to reach the southernmost corner of the world. With their only parent passing away, they have left orphans and come out of their comfortable life.Maudie and Arthur were not only orphaned and sold to a cruel family, their father and their name was disgraced. The twins know their father didn’t do what he was accused of doing and they are determined to become explorers like their father and clear his name.