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Parenting in a Climate Crisis: A Handbook for Turning Fear into Action
In this urgent parenting guide, learn how to navigate the uncertainty of the climate crisis and keep your kids informed, accountable, and hopeful–with simple actions you can take as a family to help the earth.
Kids today are experiencing the climate crisis firsthand. Camp canceled because of wildfire smoke. Favorite beaches closed due to erosion. Recess held indoors due to extreme heat. How do parents help their children make sense of it all? And how can we keep our kids (and ourselves) from despair?
Environmental journalist and parent Bridget Shirvell has created a handbook for parents to help them navigate these questions and more, weaving together expert advice from climate scientists, environmental activists, child psychologists, and parents across the country. She helps parents answer tough questions (how did we get here?) and raise kids who feel connected to and responsible for the natural world, feel motivated to make ecologically sound choices, and feel empowered to meet the challenges of the climate crisis—and to ultimately fight for change.
Kids today are experiencing the climate crisis firsthand. Camp canceled because of wildfire smoke. Favorite beaches closed due to erosion. Recess held indoors due to extreme heat. How do parents help their children make sense of it all? And how can we keep our kids (and ourselves) from despair?
Environmental journalist and parent Bridget Shirvell has created a handbook for parents to help them navigate these questions and more, weaving together expert advice from climate scientists, environmental activists, child psychologists, and parents across the country. She helps parents answer tough questions (how did we get here?) and raise kids who feel connected to and responsible for the natural world, feel motivated to make ecologically sound choices, and feel empowered to meet the challenges of the climate crisis—and to ultimately fight for change.
- GenresParenting
Audible Audio
Published February 18, 2025
7 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 22, 2025
This book includes such creative and practical applications for parents who want to live more sustainable, natural lifestyles. Her anecdotes are beautifully rendered and her tone thoughtful — never judgy. As a mom of three, I’ll be referring to this book again and again (especially for her tips around gardening and composting).
October 10, 2025
Parenting in a Climate Crisis: A Handbook for Turning Fear into Action by Bridget Shirvell
🌱 When fear meets action, hope takes root.
Bridget Shirvell’s handbook is a lifeline for anyone navigating the emotional terrain of climate anxiety—whether you’re parenting young children or simply trying to understand how the next generation is coping. Though I’m not currently raising little ones, I approached this book as someone deeply invested in the emotional well-being of young people—and it delivered far beyond expectation.
Shirvell doesn’t just offer abstract insight—she gives language to the stress, fear, and hope that children experience, tailored to age-appropriate psychological needs. What moved me most was how she invites us to see the world through children’s eyes—not just how they hear the news, but how they internalize it. In just 189 pages, she offers a clear, compassionate, and actionable guide to help adults empower kids to connect with themselves, with nature, and with their future.
One of the most powerful aspects of Shirvell’s approach is her emphasis on cultivating presence within nature—not just as a balm for fear of tomorrow, but as a grounding force for mental and physical health today. By encouraging children (and adults) to build real relationships with the natural world, she lays the foundation for authentic planetary stewardship. This isn’t about abstract environmentalism—it’s about lived experience, respect, and connection. It’s about learning to live with the world, so we can build a future that honors what we’ve felt, known, and protected.
The design of this book is brilliant. It reads like a novel—artful, direct, and full of storytelling moments—but it also functions as a “What Now?” guide for those moments when a child drops a truth bomb that leaves you breathless. Built around four themes—Feel, Love, Build, and Act—each section draws from Shirvell’s experience as a mother, journalist, and global citizen, as well as the voices of others navigating this terrain.
With history boxes, research prompts, and age-specific strategies (broken down into 4 & under, 5–8, 9–13, and 14–17), this book meets readers where they are and helps them rise. Shirvell’s core belief—that our kids’ world will be different, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be beautiful—shines through every page.
This isn’t just a parenting book—it’s a guide to emotional resilience, communal action, and radical hope.
Thank you to Workman Press, Hachette Publisher, and Tandem for sharing a copy of this book with me.
🌱 When fear meets action, hope takes root.
Bridget Shirvell’s handbook is a lifeline for anyone navigating the emotional terrain of climate anxiety—whether you’re parenting young children or simply trying to understand how the next generation is coping. Though I’m not currently raising little ones, I approached this book as someone deeply invested in the emotional well-being of young people—and it delivered far beyond expectation.
Shirvell doesn’t just offer abstract insight—she gives language to the stress, fear, and hope that children experience, tailored to age-appropriate psychological needs. What moved me most was how she invites us to see the world through children’s eyes—not just how they hear the news, but how they internalize it. In just 189 pages, she offers a clear, compassionate, and actionable guide to help adults empower kids to connect with themselves, with nature, and with their future.
One of the most powerful aspects of Shirvell’s approach is her emphasis on cultivating presence within nature—not just as a balm for fear of tomorrow, but as a grounding force for mental and physical health today. By encouraging children (and adults) to build real relationships with the natural world, she lays the foundation for authentic planetary stewardship. This isn’t about abstract environmentalism—it’s about lived experience, respect, and connection. It’s about learning to live with the world, so we can build a future that honors what we’ve felt, known, and protected.
The design of this book is brilliant. It reads like a novel—artful, direct, and full of storytelling moments—but it also functions as a “What Now?” guide for those moments when a child drops a truth bomb that leaves you breathless. Built around four themes—Feel, Love, Build, and Act—each section draws from Shirvell’s experience as a mother, journalist, and global citizen, as well as the voices of others navigating this terrain.
With history boxes, research prompts, and age-specific strategies (broken down into 4 & under, 5–8, 9–13, and 14–17), this book meets readers where they are and helps them rise. Shirvell’s core belief—that our kids’ world will be different, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be beautiful—shines through every page.
This isn’t just a parenting book—it’s a guide to emotional resilience, communal action, and radical hope.
Thank you to Workman Press, Hachette Publisher, and Tandem for sharing a copy of this book with me.
March 12, 2025
Parenting in a Climate Crisis brings together many best practices (or really, critical elements of growing) I have read in other parenting books such as practicing problem solving, and fostering a love of the outdoors with plenty of play outside. Focusing on the climate crisis, it gives readers a menu of options to choose from to demonstrate caring for and protecting the environment. You are probably doing a few of them already!
On top of the valuable knowledge to learn, I really enjoyed the author's writing style. You can tell she has a strong journalism background, because it is very accessible yet constantly engaging. She has interviewed countless experts, from environmental scientists to doctors in the field of child development, weaving them into this fine work. I strongly recommend picking it up today!
On top of the valuable knowledge to learn, I really enjoyed the author's writing style. You can tell she has a strong journalism background, because it is very accessible yet constantly engaging. She has interviewed countless experts, from environmental scientists to doctors in the field of child development, weaving them into this fine work. I strongly recommend picking it up today!
August 1, 2025
This is a compassionate, practical handbook for talking with kids about climate change without feeding despair. Shirvell blends expert insight with everyday steps—nature time, resilient routines, and age-appropriate problem-solving—to turn worry into agency. The tone is empathetic, never preachy, and the advice is realistic enough to use right away. A smart, hopeful resource for parents who want to raise engaged, grounded, climate-literate kids.
May 12, 2025
Read if common sense eludes you completely.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews