‘Missjoni: Insalvaw il-Pjaneta Blu’

● Adapted to Maltese by Dwayne Ellul

When trees are being chopped off to make way for roads, when we look around us and all we see are cranes and high-rise blocks of concrete, then we have no other option than to turn to the younger generation to safeguard our environment.

Merlin Publishers’ new book Missjoni: Insalvaw il-Pjaneta Blu is all about nurturing that. The narrator is Gwi Do, an alien who is a bit of a Super Trooper and goes round saving planets from selfdestruction. Planet Earth is his worry at the moment, and it’s the reason why he asks the reader to fasten the seatbelt for a tour of Operation: Save the Environment. He takes the reader on a mission to save four of the planet’s most important resources: air, soil, water, forests and then ends with tips on recycling.

Insalvaw il-Pjaneta Blu is a fun book, with clever lift-the-flaps and tiny booklets full of facts and little notes which help children make the link between the world around them and the environment.

Adapted to Maltese by Dwayne Ellul and supported by the National Literacy Agency, Insalvaw il-Pjaneta Blu is a gem of a book. Apart from explaining the environmental crisis that our world is in, it also nudges children into taking action, little simple ideas after they’ve read the book.

Young children are only aware of their own environments and lives. Gwi Do shows them that the world is ours, as a global community, to take care of it.

“There is nothing we can do to change the past; we can only try to create a better and brighter future and that is our mission with Insalvaw il-Pjaneta Blu,” said Merlin Publishers’ director Chris Gruppetta.