It’s Up To Us – A Children’s Terra Carta for Nature, People and Planet

April 20th 2022

Life is a roller coaster ride full of unexpected surprises. That what I found after reading a small newspaper article in January 2021.

It was a piece announcing HRH The Prince of Wales’ Terra Carta – a new treaty for business leaders that includes a series of pledges to put the planet first. The Terra Carta is part of HRH’s Sustainable Markets Initiative, and has more than 400 corporations already committed.

As I read the piece, I couldn’t help but wonder if middle-aged business executives are really the most important audience when it comes to mitigating the long-term impact of climate change? What if we could make these brilliant pledges accessible to a much wider audience – 6-106 as well as their siblings, parents, grandparents, teachers uncles and aunts?

The magic of children’s school picture books is that, if done skillfully, they can convey really complex topics within KS1 non fiction books in ways that are accessible to young minds. If read out loud with adults, they can impact them, too.

And so the idea of creating a children’s Terra Carta book was born. And what better moment than to a launch at COP26?

After gaining the support of Clarence House and agreeing a partnership with HRH’s educational charity, The Prince’s Foundation, we had just three months to write, illustrate, design and poof read the book before it had to go to press. Only these deadlines would ensure we had copies in time for launch at COP.

And that led down into a surprising and, in hindsight, an exhilarating path. No artist we approached could possibly create a fully – illustrated 64-page book in such a short space of time. Well, we thought, why not find a different artist for every spread? That’s why It’s Up To Us features 33 artists from all over the world – ranging from Siberia to Kenya and Vietnam to Aboriginal Australia. As it turned out, the approach could not have been more in keeping with the Terra Carta concept of everyone being in this climate change conundrum together, regardless of background, wealth, ethnicity or geography.

“The result is a triumph, both in terms of the poetically rendered text, and the emotional impact of the hugely contrasting illustration styles on display…” It’s Up To Us – The BookSeller, Friday 15th October, 2021

Since November I have been touring the country giving lectures at schools and festivals up and down the land on how we can activate children by using this book in the primary curriculum to help them explain to the adults in the lives what needs to be done. 

It really is an exhilarating ride. Last week, Prince Charles gave us the honour of recording the Foreword he has written for the book as a video. And on Earth Day (April 22^nd) we will reveal the video, with children from all over the world joining him in reading different excerpts from the book.

So there is hope – it rests in how we catalyse children to be the change. And I sincerely believe that children’s books, with a focus on non-fiction, are key to helping make this happen.

It's Up To Us: A Children's Terra Carta is out now.

Find out more about Christopher's events for schools at https://www.whatonearthbooks.com/author_events/the-its-up-to-us-show/ .