Greta Thunberg: Climate Activist: ISBN 978-1-68282-923-3 / eBook: 978-1-68282-924-0
Booklist, November 6, 2020
How did Greta Thunberg go from being a lone protestor outside Sweden's Parliament House to being a leading climate change activist and Time magazine's "Person of the Year" in just 14 months? Marcovitz plots the teenager's course in this straightforward and thorough biography. He begins with early influences on Thunberg, including her distant ancestor, Svante Arrhenius, a Nobel Prize–winning chemist who first signaled climate change effects in 1896, and the teenaged survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Successive chapters follow her school strikes, such pivotal speeches as her addresses to the World Economic Forum and the UN Climate Action Summit, and her global impact, both on other young activists and on national and world leaders. The author also notes Thunberg’s Asperger’s syndrome diagnosis and the role that plays in her life, as well as criticism, especially from President Trump, that she has received from speaking up. Numerous photos highlight key persons and events, while a concluding time line and list of related resources aid student researchers. A solid biography that educates and inspires.
—Angela Leeper
Greta Thunberg: Climate Activist: ISBN 978-1-68282-923-3 / eBook: 978-1-68282-924-0
Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2020
In 2018, 15-year-old Greta Thunberg's personal campaign against climate change moved beyond her family and led to student demonstrations around the world.
Former journalist Marcovitz ably introduces the Swedish teen who became Time magazine's youngest ever Person of the Year in 2019. Strongly moved by a climate change video at age 11, Thunberg became totally focused on its devastating effects and seriously depressed. A diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome explained her hyperfocus, and she used this trait to challenge first the Swedish government and then world leaders. What began as her personal “School Strike for the Climate” became an international crusade as she was invited to address world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos and United Nations meetings in Katowice, Poland, and New York. The book chronicles her activism-spurred in part by the post-Parkland anti-gun protests in the U.S. and her parents' own advocacy-as well as the sometimes personal public criticism she has faced, to which she once replied, “If they are attacking me, then that means they have no argument to speak of and their debate only involves attacking me. That means we've already won.” Marcovitz concludes with various examples of “the Greta Effect.” The straightforward, accessibly written text includes short pullout sections on a variety of topics and occasional photographs.
Informative and well-sourced, this holds appeal for young activists. (source notes, timeline, further reading, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)