The Carbon-Neutral Adventures of the Indefatigable EnviroTeens – FDOTM

February 27, 2022 at 10:59 | Posted in books | Leave a comment
Tags: book, champagne socialist, enviroteens, FDOTM, first dog on the moon, graphic novel, review

I am so behind on my book reviews. I read a lot of books, and have all the good intentions to review them, but then don’t quite do so. I think it’s because it requires more brain power to write a book review than to pump out some whimsy about a biscuit or document my cycling (mis)adventures. Anyway, I will try and improve, dear reader, and up the quotient of book reviews on this site. (Spoiler – I will not do this).

Today’s book is by cartoonist First Dog On The Moon. I like FDOTM cartoons. I suspect a fair proportion of people reading this are already eye-rolling and saying ‘that figures, the leftie bicycle-toting biscuit-eating middle-class champagne socialist reads the Guardian’. Guilty as charged on all counts.

The Carbon-Neutral Adventures of the Indefatigable EnviroTeens is a graphic novel that follows Binky (the Monotreme), Worried Norman (Pastry Person), and Letitia as they fight a dastardly plot by Singleuse Plastic Brendan to pollute the planet and kill all the turtles. It’s a graphic novel, but at the more ‘cartoony’ side of the genre, rather than cinematic. The drawing style is the same as FDOTM’s regular cartoons. A few of the characters from the regular Guardian strip make an appearance in this novel, such as Ian the Climate Denialist Potato. It’s aimed at a pre-teen and teen audience.

The story moves at a cracking pace from the ocean to a volcano to the city to an exciting denouement on the moon! I thought the book was funny, with some great humorous moments threaded through a serious narrative about pollution and climate change. There are regular short sections that explain the actual science behind the various themes that are written to be accessible for kids but with plenty of jokes to keep things getting too serious.

Both Chillikebab Jnrs also enjoyed it (aged 10 and 11), with plenty of laugh out loud moments. But I don’t think they took in too much of the more serious messages, to be honest. Or maybe they did, but just didn’t talk about them. Perhaps a slightly older young person may do so. What it has done, however, is to introduce the phrase ‘your bottom is a lonely watermelon’ into the Chillikebab family lexicon, with along with the riposte ‘that’s just weird, Derek’.

Anyway, I recommend this book, You should buy it, if for no other reason than the author is a bicycle-toting biscuit-eating middle-class champagne socialist*, and we all have to stick together.

*I do not know if FDOTM drinks champagne or rides a bicycle. But I like to think he does.