Whadayamean

Illustrated by John Burningham

“And the world became a better world.”

It took God millions of years to create a paradise on Earth, in which humans, plants, and animals would have everything they need to be happy. Tired, God falls asleep. After waking up, God decides to visit the Earth. All humanity is put to sleep, but somehow two children are awake. God takes them as guides but does not like what they find out: water and air pollution, forests logged, plants and animals diminished or extinct. “You have spoiled my lovely world,” God says. The children, animals, and God have a picnic at which God asks the children to “tell the grown-ups to change the way they’re living.” When the children protest that grown-ups won’t listen to them, God asks them to say that act on God’s direct request. The little children then go on to plead with the business and political elites, religious leaders, the military, and the general public. They are rebuked each time, but when they reveal their message is from God—each group agrees to change their ways. The world is transformed and restored. When God returns, the children ask if they can take God on another tour. “Go and show God the world,” their mother says, “for it is a lovely world. But don’t be late for bed. Remember it’s school tomorrow.”

Whadayamean is a parable of how the environmental crisis and climate emergency came to be and how they can be solved: changing the ways we think, act and live. Although the book features God, it is non-denominational. Instead, God is used as a larger moral imperative for Earth stewardship that ensures human and planetary wellbeing. The word “whadayamean”—used by adults every time the children ask for change—stands for status quo resistance and pushback to a vision of change. Water and air pollution, biodiversity loss, religious and military conflicts, as well as general publics’ ignorance and complacency—“all the people who stood by and took no notice of what was happening to the world” —are identified as causes of the crisis. Collective action, interspecies kinship and interconnectedness in turn, are shown as solutions to restore the world to be the paradise it was meant to be (see conservation, regeneration,ecological civilization).

The prose in this book flows naturally with well-timed repetitions and the illustrations are drawn in colored pencil and collage visual style, creating an impression that it was written and drawn by a child. Whadayamean is especially useful for introductory conversations about the drivers of the environmental crisis and climate emergency, as well as about young people’s agency (see youth climate activism) to advocate for the world they want to see.

©2025 ClimateLit (Marek Oziewicz)

Publisher: Red Fox, 1999

Audience: Ages 4-7, Ages 8-13

ISBN: 0-09-926668-7

Pages: 45

Format: Picturebooks

Topics: Activism, Animals, Biodiversity Loss, Biosphere, Climate Crisis, Concept Nature, Conservation, Deforestation, Earth Stewardship, Human Impact, Industry, Kinship with Animals, Marine Conservation, Nature, Nearby Nature, Pollution, Solutions, Youth Climate Activism