REVIEW: Sheri Miller and Linda Miller — Honoring Our Planet! THINK! (BOOK)

Sheri Miller and Linda Miller’s new book is Honoring Our Planet! THINK!. With lushly illustrated, vividly colorful panels to boot, Honoring Our Planet! THINK! is a genuinely remarkable, beautiful tribute to maintaining environmental awareness, and educating kids in a non-indoctrinating, straightforward and concise manner.

The biggest rule of thumb in the world of professional writing is showing, not telling, the reader. Linda Miller and her daughter Sheri Miller, also an accomplished musician and artist, have the chops, expertise, and conviction in the subject matter to do this for a young audience, and in my view the results are incredibly rewarding. Part of how Sheri does this on behalf of her mother is deliberately breaking the fourth wall, making the book simultaneously something of a thought exercise. There are literal lightbulbs shown to the audience, meant to introduce core, conceptual ideas throughout the read.

Miller also christens the book with a poem of Linda’s near the beginning, titled Living Jade. It’s a surprisingly refined touch for a book of this nature, making the whole thing feel personalized in a way a lot of picture books, and books on nonfiction topics in general, never are. In the press briefing for the release of Honoring Our Planet! THINK!: A Book About Celebrating Mother Earth, it is written: “In a timely celebration of Earth Month, and leading up to Earth Day on April 22nd, an empowering children’s book titled Honoring Our Planet! THINK! has been officially released. Poised to become a modern Earth Day classic, the publication stands as a triumphant love story, a heartfelt homage to the environment, created to fulfill a cherished dream by the late Linda Miller, and brought to fruition by her daughter, Sheri Miller.”

AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Honoring-Planet-THINK-Linda-Miller/dp/1684980968

Truer words couldn’t be said. I’m an adult male pushing thirty-one, and let me tell you, I felt empowered reading the book. When someone isn’t preaching, and just guiding you along in an impassioned but inclusive way, the results can be tremendous. As a fellow creative, I feel oddly proud of what Linda and Sheri have accomplished together. The realization of Honoring Our Planet! THINK!, courtesy of the personal touch, feels like we’re being let in on a milestone for mother and daughter.

This kind of raw authenticity when cognizant of the backstory behind the book’s creation, like I said, adds this wonderful sense of belonging for the reader. You’re not just being told the facts in a manner comprehensible to a young audience. You’re getting the feel and shape of a person, someone real, not just a talking head or pundit. Someone who knows of what they speak, but retains their humanistic qualities in the process.

What the Millers have pulled off here is respect-worthy, and will likely have a place on esteemed children’s library shelves for many years to come. My favorite part of the read I have taken away is the passage showing us the possibilities via recycling. As a Northern California native, recycling is a precept essentially in the blood. But having it laid out so simply and concisely, I’m reminded of the profound impact such a practice really does have.

Being able to lay it out like that, and still be impactful aside from the target audience, is what effective communication in this vein is all about.

Colin Jordan