Alain Serres - I Have the Right to Save My Planet

I Have the Right to

Save My Planet

Published in English in Canada and the USA in 2021 by Groundwood Books

First published in French in 2019 as Jai le droit de sauver ma plante by Rue du Monde

Copyright 2019 by Rue du Monde

English translation copyright 2021 by Groundwood Books

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a license from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright license, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press

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Groundwood Books respectfully acknowledges that the land on which we operate is the Traditional Territory of many Nations, including the Anishinabeg, the Wendat and the Haudenosaunee. It is also the Treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit.

We gratefully acknowledge the Government of Canada for its financial support of our publishing program.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: I have the right to save my planet / Alain Serres ; pictures by Aurlia Fronty.

Other titles: Jai le droit de sauver ma plante. English

Names: Serres, Alain, author. | Fronty, Aurlia, illustrator. | Tanaka, Shelley, translator.

Description: Translation of: Jai le droit de sauver ma plante. | Translated by Shelley Tanaka.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200276352 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200276360 | ISBN 9781773064871 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781773064888 (EPUB) | ISBN 9781773064895 (Kindle)

Subjects: LCSH: Childrens rightsJuvenile literature. | LCSH: Children and the environmentJuvenile literature. | LCSH: Sustainable developmentJuvenile literature. | LCSH: Environmental protectionJuvenile literature.

Classification: LCC HQ789 .S47 2021 | DDC j323.3/52dc23

The illustrations were rendered in gouache.

I Have the Right to

Save My Planet

Words by

Alain Serres

Pictures by Aurlia Fronty

GROUNDWOOD BOOKS

HOUSE OF ANANSI PRESS

TORONTO / BERKELEY

Translated by

Shelley Tanaka

Everything here is free!

The sun and its rays of light are free. The chirping of the birds, the shade beneath the trees, the golden dandelions all free.

Its not like going to the store, where you have to pay for everything.

When it comes to nature,

I have the right

to everything.

What about the air? Its for the land and people everywhere!

And the green grass? Free for the cows!

And all that good cow dung?

A gift for all the flies in the sky!

When we come into the world, it gives us a huge gift its birds, trees, mammals, corals, microscopic animals, flowers, insects, fish, bacteria, mushrooms ... More than ten million species live with us on this planet ...

And were discovering fifty new species

each day.

In the forests of New Guinea, researchers have found a tiny frog with a pointy nose that can stick straight out. Theyve named it Litoria pinocchio the Pinocchio treefrog.

I have the right to cheer, Hurray for diversity!

(But not too loud. Dont want to wake up the frog baby.)

Come on, humans! Time to wake up!

Scientists are warning us that many species will disappear if we continue to mistreat nature. Plenty of them have disappeared already.

I have the right to know that in Borneo, people are destroying rainforests to make room for palm trees. Why? Because oil from the palm fruit is an inexpensive ingredient used to make some cookies, margarine and shower gels.

I have the right to know that by clearing the rainforest, humans are dangerously reducing the habitat of the great apes.

Without enough food and shelter, some of them, like the orangutans, could disappear forever.

I have the right to say, I dont want the rainforest to be replaced with palm trees. I dont want those cookies, not even the chocolate ones.

Scientists who study the natural world are warning us that the Earth could lose

one million plant and animal species

if we dont take more care from the tigers in Sumatra to the ibex in the Alps, from the white orchids of Kenya to the manatees in the Caribbean.

These animals and plants need us to protect them and the places where they live.

Each species depends on the others.

So if a plant disappears, the insects that feed on its flowers will vanish, too.

And so will the frogs that eat those insects, and the fish that feed on the eggs of those frogs ...

The great chain of life goes all the way around the planet.

We must not interrupt it.

To grow plants that will attract bees.

To preserve the places where

birds and insects live.

I know all this, so I have the right to take action.

To send a message to the leaders of the world, signed by my whole family, saying,

Help protect our planet.