Friday, November 19, 2021

Short Book Review: This is Climate Change

David Nelles, et.al., This is Climate Change: a Visual Guide to the Facts. New York: The Experiment LLC, 2021. ISBN: 9781615198269.
 
Genre: nonfiction, science
Subgenre: infographics, climate change
Format: e-book galley
Source: NetGalley
 

The publisher describes the book as an "essential, all-in-one guide to climate change-- packed with easy-to-understand infographics on all the latest scientific findings." That sounds great on paper, but the book falls a bit short of that ideal. 

The book does offer some good infographics, but they vary in how undestandable they are. Some of the graphics can be quite complex for average readers. Yes the book does offer accurate and up to date (as of this book) information on climate change. However, the text at times can also be fairly complex and even inaccessible. To be honest, this was not an interesting reading. It felt more like a chore to read. 
 
On a side note, the book's bibliography was presented as a QR code, which seems to be the hip thing instead of just providing the list in the book. This may limit accessibility for some readers. 

A reason I wanted to read this book was for possible library acquisition. I figured it could be helpful for some student assignments. However, the book does not seem written for average readers; I do not see many undergrads choosing to use this book for a paper on climate change. This is a book I would label as optional for libraries. I would not purchase for my library unless requested. 

Overall, for a book labeled as "easy-to-understand," it really is not. It seems more written for other academics. In a time when this kind of information needs to be accessible, easy to understand, and written plainly, this book had potential but fell short. It was just OK. 

2 out of 5 stars. 

Book qualifies for the following 2021 Reading Challenge: 



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