Green Goat Books Announces Release of A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids by Julie Hall

Bainbridge Island, WA, January 16, 2008 --(PR.com)-- A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids, written by Julie Hall and newly released by Green Goat Books, energetically tackles the difficult topic of climate change with clear and accessible writing, engaging illustrations, hands-on activities, many special features, and a hopeful and empowering message for kids (ages 9 and up). Endorsed by leaders in the climate change fight including Bill McKibben, U.S. Congressman Jay Inslee, and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Hot Planet promises to play a key role in the way kids, their parents, and their schools understand and approach climate change.

Bill McKibben, writes, “What’s so dangerous about global warming is that it leaves many people feeling hopeless, as if nothing they could do would matter. This fine book makes it clear that that’s not the case.” Four of the book’s seven chapters are devoted to strategies for combating this environmental, social, and economic threat. And the final chapter offers a pep talk for kids and their families, encouraging them to take up the fight and not despair. Jay Inslee explains: "Cool kids can only get cooler once they take in the vibrant and colorful vision of change in this book. Once both generations catch the spirit of hope from this book, we'll change the nation—and the world."

Lynn Brunelle, an Emmy-winning writer for Bill Nye the Science Guy, calls A Hot Planet “a powerful tool to put in the hands of all of our children” and “a must-have in any science classroom.” With a downloadable comprehensive curriculum package from Green Goat Books (due out in February), the book should quickly find its way into those science classrooms and into social studies classrooms as well. This will make it easier for teachers to implement climate change units in their schools, at a time when demand is high but curriculum materials are still in short supply. The Green Goat Books curriculum package will include lesson plans, assessment materials, national standards correlations, and cross-curricular teaching strategies.

Author Julie Hall is a veteran of the book industry, having written numerous nonfiction books for children and worked for twenty years as a freelance writer and editor of science, social studies, and literature curriculum and career, health, and travel books. Her poetry has won grants and awards and appeared in anthologies and magazines, including The Nation and The Threepenny Review. Her book-length collection of poems, The Winter Garden, was a finalist for the 2003 Ohio State University Press/The Journal Award in Poetry.

Green Goat Books (http://www.greengoatbooks.com) is the publishing imprint of planet-friendly e-tailer ProgressiveKid (http://www.progressivekid.com). A pioneer in the green products market, ProgressiveKid offers parents and kids eco-friendly products that convey progressive messages. Like its parent company, Green Goat Books walks the walk: The book is printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper, and the publisher promises to plant a tree for every copy sold. Green Goat Books describes its mission as striving "through planet friendly, progressive, and challenging books to support the development of progressive kids, so that the next generation will be prepared and motivated to care for our planet and the many forms of life that live on it."

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