The Big Green

LoveReading4Kids Says

January 2026 Book of the Month

One day, Maryam and Issa head out of town with their parents to the desert of Mali, where they know “something exciting is going to happen”. They spend the day planting seedlings with not only their family and neighbours, but with people across the continent working together to make a difference to the world, for this picturebook is a snapshot into the real-life Great Green Wall, an exciting project to plant trees across the width of Africa, spanning eleven countries.

Ken Wilson-Max has an incredible talent for addressing big concepts in a bright, accessible package – each of his picturebooks with Otter-Barry Books responds to one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, with The Big Green’s focus on the goal of Climate Action. Some books on this topic can place a little too much emphasis on individual, rather than collective action, whereas here, in both the narrative and the backmatter, the act of planting trees is shared by the children, their parents, their community, and people “from village to town, from stream to river, from ocean to ocean”. The climate action depicted is practical, sustainable, lasting, and hopeful.

This picturebook has something for all ages. Younger readers will enjoy the bright, summery colour palette, and the moments of onomatopoeic musical interaction – Maryam and Issa’s clapping game, and the “dum, dum, cha!” of Mum and Dad poking and digging the earth – common to many of Wilson-Max's books. Meanwhile, older readers may be inspired to research other environmental movements, particularly those originating in Africa and led by African people, such as Wangarĩ Maathai and the Green Belt Movement, or the contemporary climate justice activist Vanessa Nakate. This is a joyful and empowering book about making a difference and caring for our world and our future, together.

Phoebe Demeger

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