Skip to main content

Clearing the Air

STEPHEN BLUE FOR TIME FOR KIDS

Can one kid really take on a big problem like pollution? That’s the question facing the hero of a new book, Iqbal and His Ingenious Idea.

Iqbal lives in Bangladesh. His mother cooks indoors over an open fire. The smoke makes his mom and sister sick. It also pollutes the air. To help, Iqbal turns a broken umbrella into a solar stove. It harnesses heat from the sun to cook food without smoke.

The book is fiction, but it’s based on a real problem for many people in Bangladesh. Author Elizabeth Suneby told TFK she hopes to inspire kids to take action on global issues. “What we do causes ripples,” she says. “We can affect our families, our classrooms, our neighborhoods, our communities, and the planet.”