About this item
Passionate about politics? Dedicated to saving the environment? Outspoken about animal rights? No matter the cause, kids can make a difference! This guide features change-maker tips as well as anecdotes of young activists around the globe and throughout history. The suggested activist tactics covered range from tweaking everyday habits--like the sisters who call themselves the Plastic Patrol and convinced their family to stop using grocery bags and straws--to stretching to achieve something extraordinary--like the teen who used food waste to invent a water purification system. Told in Caroline Paul's trademark breezy voice and including Lauren Tamaki's delightful spot illustrations and tons of DIY activities, this is the ultimate practical--and fun!--manual for kids looking to change the world.
About the Author
I grew up in New England, with an identical twin, a younger brother, and a menagerie of animals. I did some goofy things as an adolescent: I learned all the constellations in the Western Hemisphere; I tried to set the Guinness World Record for crawling; I built a boat out of milk cartons, then convinced my twin and two friends to join me on the river, then waded to shore with them when it broke up in the first rapid. These adventures and more are part of my latest book, The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure, written especially for 7-12 year-old girls. I graduated from Stanford University, where I studied Communications. At the time I had a vague idea that perhaps I would become a documentary filmmaker. Instead, in 1989, I became a San Francisco firefighter.I wrote about my thirteen and a half year career in Fighting Fire, an updated version of which came out in 2011. I'd tell you about those years, but really, you should just read the book. I will only say that being in a fire made me happy, and doing emergency medical work intrigued me. All of it made me a better person.The most remote place I've been is Siberia, where I saw a Unidentified Flying Object that may or may not have been the Soviet military. The highest place I've been was on a mountain bike in the Bolivian Alps back when mountain bikes were scarce and 15,000 feet didn't hurt as much as it would now. The most isolated I've ever felt was in a blizzard on the mountain of Denali, where we had to stay in the tent and pee into a Gatorade bottle.My novel East Wind, Rain came out in 2006. It is based closely on the little known but true story some call "the battle of Niihau," that begins when a Japanese pilot who has just attacked Pearl Harbor is forced to crash land on an isolated Hawaiian island. The inhabitants there have no communication with the outside world, and are puzzled by his sudden, dramatic arrival. The book follows the next seven days, as the seemingly mysterious event divides the villagers and disrupts a once peaceful paradise. "When it's over, you don't want to leave," said the New York Times. In 2013 my third book, Lost Cat, A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology, was published. It's about my obsessive to search to figure out where my cat journeyed when I was not around and entailed GPS tracking, video, psychics and animal communicators. Despite the title, it's really about how lost humans can become, and the animals that help them regain their bearings. Lost Cat was named a Best Book by Jezebel and by the influential website Brainpickings. For years I was mistaken for my identical twin, Alexandra Paul. That would ordinarily be unremarkable, except that Alexandra is an actress with a long and storied career, and her face (and thus mine) is recognized all over the world. The ensuing confusion, absurdity, and hilarity is captured in the essay Almost Her:The Strange Dilemma of Being N
