A memorable, humorous story that inspires action

Author and licensed teacher, Dawn Pape deftly weaves a serious environmental problem with humor to create a memorable story that is intended to inspire action with respect to her young readers. Of special note is how “Ejected” doubles as an educational manual. It explains how to end the climate crisis—perfect for individuals and classroom teachers. Although a work of fiction, “Ejected: The Story that Solves the Climate Crisis” offers real climate solutions while also exploring other critical societal problems including environmental racism. This makes it an ideal and unreservedly recommended addition to family, middle-school, high school, and community library YA Fiction collections.

Author Dawn Pape shares why her writing is inspired by young climate change activists. “With COVID-19 afoot, people have their fill of bad news and many members of society seek escapes through series streaming, fitness, food, and/or drink. But then there’s the type of teens who escape by reading a good book. They feel better by addressing their fears rather than running away from them. These people are my people!  Although written for young adults, older adults are also invited to learn, engage, and help secure the next generation’s future.”

Ejected – New Wondrous “Fictional” Book on the Environment for Young Adults

“After reading Ejected I was left with an overwhelming sense of positivity. I am a positive person anyway and I know that we can stop Climate Change if we all work together. However, reading how it can be done with supporting figures? Well it’s difficult to feel anything other than positivity and excitement!

Ejected is full of information hidden within the storyline, that makes it unlike other ‘information books’. You can’t put it down once you start reading. With all the information explained simply, we can all learn what changes we can make both on large and smaller scales. Take the impacts of clothes dryers compared to a clothesline for example. This shows that the changes really can be as small as drying your clothes on a line in the sun. Another eye opener was the impact of junk mail and emails, quite scary figures but easily fixed.

As the story develops, we as readers are given a very clear view of what life on Earth will be like for humans, if we don’t take Climate Change seriously and continue down our current path – and within a small time frame. A line I will always remember is ‘The world will go on, but the question is, will people?’ and it really puts everything in perspective.”

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“The state of the environment is very much a legacy that we leave to future generations. This is not only of humans, but of all life forms. The critical peak of saving our planet from permanent damage is fast approaching, however, more and more children are starting to become aware of the call to action. Teenage activists like Greta Thunberg, family orientated programmes like Blue Planet, child friendly news reports and now, as well as works of fiction such as Ejected, speak directly to a younger audience.

Ejected follows the story of a father and daughter, Keith and Ivy. When Keith fails to materialise to pick Ivy up from her mother’s house, Ivy realises that something is wrong, but doesn’t know that her dad has been ejected from the planet for “selfish, massive impacts”. Determined to right his wrong, Keith makes contact with his 14 year old daughter and asks for her help, to raise awareness and persuade others to adopt a sustainable lifestyle.

Aimed at a teenage audience, Ejected is suitable for any confident readers who can deal with the subject matter of a damaged planet Earth. Alongside the challenging storyline, written in a direct but engaging manner, are graphs and tables which demonstrates the projected risk to our world if action is not taken. These may be a little hard to navigate for very young teenagers but add to the focus of the story and will be of interest to young adults and adults as well.

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I shared my review copy of Ejected with my 10 year old son, who thought it was an interesting read. He was engaged by the story, although found the statistical parts (for example where Ivy researches the breakdown of emissions in America) a little dry. He is, however, below the age of the target audience, and I suspect in another few years would be more interested by them. Overall he felt that it was a clever use of a father / daughter relationship and a storyline that was entertaining whilst informative.

I am sure that teenagers who are keen environmentalists would receive this book well, and may be encouraged to do further research after reading it. For anyone who would like to learn more, Pape includes a list of research and further reading at the end of the book.”