LA Times bashes our global warming kid's book

The L.A. Times published a book review of several global warming books, including Laurie David's Down to Earth Guide and our own The Sky's Not Falling. Reviewer Sonja Bolle liked David's "easy-to-read blocks" and lauded her desire "to raise awareness and persuade children to consider the environment in the choices they make in daily life." Ours? Well, not so much. I think author Holly Fretwell lost Bolle with the "Chicken Little" analogy.

Which is fine by me. The reviewer's political bias is what I would expect from the L.A. Times, and at least Bolle is upfront about it. She actually interrupts her review to advocate environmental regulation, so her activist viewpoint is clearly labeled. (Why her editor would let her go off topic in the midst of a book review is another question.)

Unfortunately, Bolle let bias get in the way of asking some tough questions about this book that David wants to get into the hands of kids. As I previously noted on this blog, David spends little time defending the science behind her left-wing beliefs, and what little effort she makes is largely based around a deceptively labeled graph. David has also clearly stated that her goal is to manipulate children on global warming in order to influence their parents.

I did notice one instance in her review where Bolle didn't trip over ideology, though. She does concede that schoolmarmish Al Gore could only write in a "dignified and elegant" tone with "many revisions."