Alamy

The health of our planet depends on all of us, and perhaps no group today feels this more acutely than the world’s youth.

Younger generations will be left to grapple with some of the most devastating consequences of a warming world. According to some projections, for example, a child born in 2020 will experience a two- to seven-fold increase in extreme weather events compared to those born in 1960.

So it’s no surprise that young people have been on the forefront of climate movements demanding bold, global action.

We asked nine young trailblazers — all pushing for change in their communities in inspiring and creative ways — to share their favorite climate-related books and podcasts, as well as what one action they’d like to see in the world.

Let their recommendations help you sharpen your understanding of the crisis from all angles:

Marina Melanidis, Founder, Youth4Nature

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: All We Can Save by Ayana Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson. It’s a hopeful and unapologetically feminist view of not just the climate crisis, but how beautiful the solutions are.

My favorite climate change podcast is: The “Ajyal Podcast” with Rayan Kassem. It’s a podcast that highlights and explores the priorities, perspectives and expertise of youth leaders about nature, climate and justice within West Asia and the Middle East. It’s one of the (if not the) only podcasts focused on climate justice by West Asian youth. These perspectives are absolutely critical, yet often unheard in climate spaces, especially by the Global North. Episodes are both in English and Arabic, and cover topics including oil and gas in the Gulf region, Palestinian land rights, the fight of Indigenous communities in the Middle East for social and climate justice, and the impacts of militarization on climate movements.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: Join a collective. Individual action alone will not catalyze the systemic, transformative changes necessary to address the climate crisis. Only as a collective, pushing for change on the streets, in our communities and at the ballot box, will we be able to build the world we both need and deserve.

Ayisha Siddiqa, Cofounder, Polluters Out

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: Ecology by Ernest Callenbach. This book is less about the climate crisis and more about the intricate networks of what we call ecology. The book touches on the harrowing effects of the climate catastrophe, but it also opens up the complex and ever developing life on earth. I keep it around like a thesaurus.

My favorite climate change podcast is: Mary Annaïse Heglar and Amy Westervelt’s podcast “Hot Take” is one of the most introspective series about climate. It has not only made me more knowledgeable about the history of the crisis but also be able to explicitly link it with injustice. On a separate note, I find that working in a field of emergency can be emotionally taxing and thus poetry podcasts — especially poems of imagination or finding love in everyday objects — are as necessary to my role in mitigating the climate crisis as are the facts.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: Push for complete divestment and transition away from fossil fuel. You can do this by joining groups like Polluters Out. I think for an issue of such magnitude, there are so many ways to get involved, but the single most largest contributor to the climate crisis is corporate extraction and use of fossil fuels.

Clover Hogan, Founder & Executive Director, Force of Nature

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation by Paul Hawken. Climate science tells us we’re hurtling toward the cliff and that we can’t just hit the brakes – we need to turn around and drive in the other direction. This book of solutions shows us how.

My favorite climate change podcast is: Season 2 of the “Force of Nature” podcast, “We need to talk about eco-anxiety.” Each episode in this 12-part series explores a different face of the climate crisis through the lens of our mental health: from the food we eat, to our relationship with media and our addiction to fossil fuels. It’s a powerful piece of storytelling told through the voices of young people who have inherited the challenge.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: To step up rather than shut down in the face of the climate crisis. It’s easy to feel powerless to make a difference, yet we’ll only create the world we know is possible if we have the courage to imagine it – and the mindset to make it happen.

Helen Watts, Director of Global Partnerships, Student Energy

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: I really appreciated A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency by Seth Klein for a couple of reasons. One, being a history nerd I find the content really interesting — I’m drawn to comparative analyses between history and current times, and what we can learn from looking back at history. The second reason being that the book felt like a bit of a “calling the BS” on incremental climate action and long-term commitments by governments by pointing to the real fact that when countries throughout history have felt like they truly have no time to lose to avoid real human, political and economic costs, they do know how to act and treat that situation like the crisis it is.

My favorite climate change podcast is: For energy transition conversations, “Watt It Takes” by Emily Kirsch is awesome and really important. It features complex yet accessible conversations on the real barriers to changing our energy system and what’s working well that we can learn from. For climate change and action, “How to Save a Planet” by Gimlet is super fun, really engaging, and keeps climate action feeling fresh, innovative and people-centered, which is key when you’re feeling disillusioned with the lack of ambition and action at a leadership level.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: Show up and vote for strong climate platforms — challenge your elected officials and platforms running for office to get bolder, more concrete and more inclusive with their climate plans.

Alexandria Villasenor, Founder, Earth Uprising International

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: All We Can Save, co-edited by Ayana Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson. It is diverse, and features 60 women authors writing about an array of climate issues. The best part is that it is framed with positivity and hope.

My favorite climate change podcast is: I like “Drilled” because Amy Westervelt is amazing, they are part of the Covering Climate Now media initiative and they are accountable for the information and facts they bring to the climate movement.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: Write, call and visit your lawmakers to demand action and accountability on the climate crisis. This is because the climate crisis is a systemic issue and we need broad governmental action.

Ricardo Pineda Guzman, Director, Sustenta Honduras

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: The Age of Sustainable Development by Jeffrey D. Sachs. Climate change is more than just the climate. This is one of the best books to learn about intersectional impacts and sustainability.

My favorite climate change podcast is: “People Taking Action.” It’s an inspiring way to hear about how youth are changing and shaping the world. Hero|Podcast is another really inspiring podcast about youth on climate action.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: Advocacy. We need rapid and equitable decarbonization.

Haven Coleman, Founder/Director, ARID agency and #GiveAIR Fund

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: Anything by Naomi Klein or Bill McKibben is the best, but This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein is a must. If you’re wondering why capitalism hasn’t solved the climate crisis already, want ideas on how you can be of help, and need hope to keep you going, this is your book.

My favorite climate change podcast is: “Hot Take” or “How to Save a Planet” — sorry, I can’t pick a fave! Their hearts and wit shine through each episode, they aren’t afraid to tell it like it is, and I always learn something new.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: Everyone on Earth needs to be starting and leading conversations about the climate crisis with everyone they come in contact with in their community. I’m choosing this because not everyone on Earth is responsible for the crisis nor does everyone have the means or power to fix it, but we all need to be talking about the crisis and how it affects us for any change to occur.

Neeshad Shafi, Co-Founder, Arab Youth Climate Movement Qatar

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming by Paul Hawken is a comprehensive, easy-to-understand plan to save and reverse global warming, plus information to share with the community.

My favorite climate change podcast is: “How to Save a Planet” and “Outrage + Optimism.”

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: At the personal level, I would recommend taking action on your carbon footprint on a regular basis. We have started the first carbon footprint calculator of Qatar to be released later this month.

Maurus Pfalzgraf, youth activist, FFF Switzerland

The best book I’ve read about the climate crisis is: I listened to the audiobook version of This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein and I learned how different the fight is in different countries.

My favorite climate change podcast is: Not a podcast, but “Our Changing Climate” is a Youtube channel I like because it informs in a way which is understandable for a really broad audience.

If I could tell everyone on Earth to take one action on behalf of the climate, it would be: If I knew a smart answer to that question I would give a TED Talk about it. I promise.

Today’s youth have inherited a big, unprecedented climate problem to solve — and the eco-anxiety to go with it. Gen-Zer and activist Clover Hogan believes the path to climate action starts with the one thing you can control: your mindset.

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This piece was adapted for TED-Ed from this Ideas article.

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You’ve heard of sci-fi, but what do you know about cli-fi?

As global leaders struggle to make firm commitments to reduce emissions and scientists discover ever more dangerous feedback loops and repercussions from climate change, writers are using the power of the pen to show us what the world might look like if we don’t act soon to combat climate change. Dubbed “cli-fi,” these books are as much about the human condition as they are about the state of the planet. In that way, they’re much like traditional literature in that they’re asking questions about how people adapt to and meet potentially devastating challenges.

Here are six great texts for readers to dip their toes into this important genre:

1. Dry by Jarrod Shusterman and Neal Shusterman

As droughts pummel the American West in real life, Dry feels even more timely. The Tap-Out has forced people to limit their water use for years, but when the taps actually run dry, Alyssa’s suburban neighborhood becomes its own kind of dystopia, where friends and neighbors turn on one another in a desperate attempt to survive. Things go from bad to worse when Alyssa finds that she has to care for not only herself but her younger brother as well… and their lives hang in the balance. (Ages 13-17)

2. Orleans by Sherri L. Smith

This book is frighteningly relevant: Sherri L. Smith imagines what the Gulf coast would look like after being battered by devastating storms and suffering from a subsequent disease called “The Fever.” The Gulf coast is quarantined by a wall that separates it from the Outer States. Amidst this chaos and cruelty, young Fen finds herself left with her tribe leader’s newborn. Desperate to give the baby a chance at a better life outside the Delta, she teams up with a scientist named Daniel, and together they fight their way toward survival. (Ages 14 and up)

3. American War by Omar El Akkad

A master of dystopian fiction that feels both real and surreal, Omar El Akkad creates a version of the United States in 2074 where states splinter in the wake of a terrible plague, and a Second Civil War breaks out. Sarat Chestnut, only six at the time the war begins, learns the hard way that powerful forces will seek to take advantage of the crisis. Sarat finds herself in a camp for displaced persons and discovers just how dangerous this new American can be. El Akkad is a journalist, who has reported from conflict zones the world over, which makes this novel feel less like imaginative fiction and more like its story has been ripped from global headlines. (Ages 16 and up)

4. Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller

Part dystopian fiction, part magical realism, part political thriller, and part sci-fi, this novel has it all. It’s set in a floating city in the Arctic Circle, which was created in the wake of the climate wars. Always a hard place to live in, the city is beginning to resemble the world we readers know too well: inequality is growing rampantly, and crime and political corruption are on the rise. Enter “the orcamancer,” a woman riding an orca, who seeks to draw together a band of resistors to fight back against the city’s degradation, but Miller raises questions about the destruction she’s willing to undertake. Miller aims for this narrative to argue for the rights of the marginalized, and he hits the mark, crafting a story that elicits empathy and compassion. Parts of the narrative are fairly violent, but it isn’t without hope. (Ages 16 and up)

5. Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

Kim Stanley Robinson is a giant in the sci-fi/fantasy world, and this novel is his latest feat. Ezra Klein called this novel “the most important book [he’s] read” in 2020. This is a lengthy read, but it feels more contemporary than other cli-fi texts… but not in a comforting way! The world of this novel feels all too plausible: in the wake of government inaction, eco-terrorists desperately try to take out polluters by whatever means necessary. The book asks some weighty moral questions about what kinds of actions are justified in an increasingly unstable world and explores different pathways toward a more stable future: bureaucratic avenues are juxtaposed against radical, violent action, and everything from geo-engineering to terrorism seems to be on the table for one group or another. Readers will find themselves pondering the questions the book raises long after the final page. (Ages 17 and up)

6. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

As the first part of Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy, The Fifth Season considers how societies deal with disaster on an epic scale. The book combines both science fiction and fantasy, which makes for the perfect combination to address issues like seismology and volcanology, which can feel other worldly in their devastation. This one’s another lengthy read, but the corollaries to our world in terms of the racial and class politics the novel addresses make it feel hyper relevant. And the gorgeous world-building alone is worth the time investment. WNYC chose this novel as a SciFri Book Club pick in 2019, so there’s lots to think about in this fantasy novel for the science-minded reader. (Ages 17 and up)

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shannon Falkner teaches English Language Arts at Chatham High School in Chatham, NJ. She is a Teacher Consultant at the Drew Writing Project and Digital Literacies Collaborative at Drew University.  Shannon is a passionate advocate for “climate literacy” and has trained with The Climate Reality Project. In addition to teaching English, she volunteers as a climate educator and often writes about both education and climate.

Pete Ryan

Greetings from an evangelist for a declining field: literature!

English majors, like all humanities majors, are on the wane. In the US alone, one-third of the degrees from liberal arts colleges were awarded in the humanities before 2011; now just one-quarter are. At research universities, humanities degrees have dropped from 17% to 11%.

So, in some ways, it makes sense that the study of literature is less popular. But guess what else is on the outs? Empathy. A study which analyzed 15,000 college students found that they’re scoring 40% lower in empathy than those in the past.

What’s the connection? I’ve spent the past two decades in the classroom teaching literature, and what I deeply believe — and what the emerging field of literary neuroscience is beginning to prove — is that literature makes us more empathetic.

Are we frustrated or sympathetic with Hamlet’s reluctance to avenge his father? When Jane Eyre realizes Mr. Rochester is married, do we urge her to flee Thornfield, or to stay?

During engaged reading, we compare the protagonist’s actions to what we’d do in a similar situation or what we’ve done in the past. The mind-reading we do when thinking through a character helps us develop social sensitivity, as demonstrated ingeniously by the “reading the mind in the eyes” test. In this study, participants were presented with a series of gray-scale photos cropped to reveal only a person’s eyes. They were then asked to identify the expression contained in the eyes from four options. Turns out, regular readers of fiction scored higher on this test, and I think it’s because reading gives us practice taking on another’s point of view. We may stereotype bookworms as paste-eating, socially awkward loners, but reading literature helps us read the room.

How do books pull off their magic trick of transporting us into another person’s body? Taking a look at the brain — specifically, the multiple regions that engage and coordinate when we read — gives us a clue.

One of my favorite authors is Jane Austen, and in one of my favorite studies, literature PhD students were given a Jane Austen novel to read — but not on a couch. Instead, they read the Austen inside a fMRI Machine, which depicts brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow. Natalie Phillips, the literary scholar who worked on the study, hypothesized that the subjects, while reading, would experience an increase in blood to the areas of the brain responsible for processing language. To her surprise, the students experienced a dramatic global increase, with blood flowing to areas that have nothing to do with processing language.

Say you read a passage about running through a forest. You’d expect the left temporal lobe, the area responsible for language processing, to light up. It does — but so does the frontal lobe’s motor cortex, which coordinates the body’s movements. In fact, it lights up in the same way it would if you were actually running. Say you read the words “lavender” or “coffee” or “cinnamon.” You’ll experience the activity we’d expect in your left temporal lobe but you’d also have activity in your olfactory cortex, which lights up in the same way it would if you were actually smelling those scents.

This kind of activity doesn’t happen with fact-based nonfiction, such as political journalism, movie reviews, or Ikea bookshelf assembly manuals. That Ikea manual might result in a cool bookcase, but if you want to light up your brain like fireworks on the Fourth of July, you need to stock that bookcase with Jane Austen (and read it).

Is there any practical application to this increased brain connectivity? 

What if I told you that empathy we feel for characters could make people less racist? That what was demonstrated by Dan Johnson, who used Saffron Dreams, a novel from the point of view of a Muslim-American woman, to see if empathetic reading could reduce racial bias. For his study, Johnson divided the participants into two groups. Half of them read a 3,000-word excerpt from the novel. The other half read a 500-word synopsis of that excerpt, which retained all the facts but none of the character’s rich interior life, dialogue or metaphors, or sensory details that make a book come alive. Afterwards, participants were presented with photos of what Johnson described as “ambiguous Arab-Caucasian faces,” some of which appeared angry. When asked to identify the race of the person in the photo, participants who read the fact-based synopsis were disproportionately likely to categorize the angry faces as Arab. This bias was absent among those who read the lush, transporting excerpt.

Children, too, can improve their opinions about stigmatized groups through reading, as proven in a study using the first Harry Potter book in Italy, a country where immigrants are often stigmatized. The control group read a passage in which Harry gets his first wand. The other group read a passage relating to prejudice, in which Draco Malfoy, a shockingly blond pure-blood wizard, calls Harry’s friend Hermione “a filthy little Mudblood.” A week later, the children’s attitudes were assessed, and those who’d read the passages dealing with prejudice had significantly improved attitudes towards immigrants.

These findings make me think of the students in my office who are struggling over whether or not to choose to be an English major because they want to be successful. If by “success,” they mean the highest average starting salary, perhaps I should lead them from the English building towards the Business Administration building. But if success means helping to create a more harmonious world, pull up a chair.

I know some folks play fantasy football; I play fantasy fiction seminar and my “players” are those most in need of the heightened brain connectivity that literature induces — namely world leaders and policymakers. Imagine if, before initiating aggressive military action, leaders had to read a novel from the point of view of an enemy combatant. Imagine if, before cutting social services, legislators had to inhabit the interior life of a person who is on welfare. Imagine if leaders couldn’t set a prison sentence or create immigration policy until they’d aced my midterm. We would have a world in which decisions are informed by empathetic imaginations, processed by brains experiencing increases of blood flow to multiple areas of the brain.

I’ve been discussing all the ways that literature educates us emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually, but I’d like to end with what it does for us hedonistically.

Don’t read because it’s good for you. Read because it’s good. Doesn’t it taste so good to suck a novel’s sweet juice? Reading not only helps us feel — it helps us feel better. Books make us less isolated. As James Baldwin once put it, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.”

The best takeaway from literary neuroscience is that our beautiful brains are tremendously malleable. We can change our minds, literally.

So why not give it a try? Go lose yourself in a book. Which is also to say: Go find yourself. And, while you’re at it, find the rest of us, too.

This article was adapted from a TEDxUniversityofMississippi Talk. Watch it here:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Beth Ann Fennelly is the poet laureate of Mississippi and teaches in the MFA Program at the University of Mississippi, where she was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year. Her sixth book, Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs (W. W. Norton) was an Atlanta Journal Constitution Best Book of 2017. Learn more at http://www.bethannfennelly.com

This post was originally published on TED Ideas. It’s part of the “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from someone in the TED community; browse through all the posts here.

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We — Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson — are climate experts who focus on solutions, leadership and building community.

We are a natural and a social scientist, a Northerner and a Southerner. We’re also both lifelong inter-disciplinarians in love with words and the cofounders of The All We Can Save Project, in support of women climate leaders.

Our collaboration has led us to read widely and deeply about the climate crisis that’s facing humanity.

Here are 15 of our favorite writings on climate — this eclectic list contains books, essays, a newsletter, a scientific paper, even legislation— and they’re all ones we wholeheartedly recommend:

1. All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis coedited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson

We had the honor of editing this collection of 41 essays, 17 poems, quotes and original illustrations — so naturally we love it! But you don’t have to take our word for it. As Rolling Stone said: “Taken together, the breadth of their voices forms a mosaic that honors the complexity of the climate crisis like few, if any, books on the topic have done yet. … The book is a feast of ideas and perspectives, setting a big table for the climate movement, declaring all are welcome.” All We Can Save nourished, educated and transformed us as we shaped its pages, and we can’t wait for it to do the same for you.

2. Ghost Fishing: An Eco-justice Poetry Anthology edited by Melissa Tuckey

We count ourselves among those who can’t make sense of the climate crisis without the aid of poets, who help us to see more clearly, feel our feelings, catch our breath, and know we’re not alone. This anthology is a magnificent quilt of poems that are made for this moment and all its intersections.

3. “We Don’t Have to Halt Climate Action to Fight Racism” by Mary Annaïse Heglar

“Climate People,” as she likes to call us, should be grateful that Mary Annaïse Heglar decided a few years back to pick up her pen once more as a writer. All of her essays are necessary reading, but this one is especially so, crafted from Mary’s perspective as a “Black Climate Person.” It’s a powerful articulation of the inextricability of a society that values Black lives and a livable planet for all.

4. Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change by Sherri Mitchell — Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset

Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset means “she who brings the light,” and Sherri Mitchell does exactly that in this incredible tapestry of a book, which begins with Penawahpskek Nation creation stories and concludes with guidance on what it means to live in a time of prophecy. It is rare that a book so generously shares wisdom, much less wisdom about how we got to where we are, what needs mending, and what a path forward that’s grounded in ancestral ways of knowing and being might look like.

5. Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown

How lucky are we to be contemporaries of adrienne maree brown? Very. This is a book that we come back to time and time again to ground and enliven our work. We love this line from her about oak trees: “Under the earth, always, they reach for each other, they grow such that their roots are intertwined and create a system of strength that is as resilient on a sunny day as it is in a hurricane.” That’s the kind of community we’re trying to nurture.

6. “Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun’s Rays” by Eunice Newton Foote

Eunice Newton Foote rarely gets the credit she’s due — and she deserves a lot of credit. In fact, we like to think of her as the first climate feminist. In 1856, she connected the dots between carbon dioxide and planetary warming, but science and history forgot (dismissed?) her until recently. This is her original paper, which was published in The American Journal of Science and Arts. Foote was also a signatory to the women’s rights manifesto created at Seneca Falls in 1848, alongside visionaries like Frederick Douglass.

7. The Drawdown Review by Project Drawdown

Full disclosure: Katharine is The Drawdown Review’s editor-in-chief and principal writer. But Ayana fully endorses this recommendation — it’s a valuable resource as we charge ahead toward climate solutions. We all need to know what tools are in the toolbox, and The Drawdown Review is the latest compendium of climate solutions that already exist. This publication is beautifully designed, grounded in research, and you can access it for free.

8. The Green New Deal Resolution by the 116th US Congress

It seems that almost everyone has an opinion about the Green New Deal, but few people have read the actual piece of legislation: House Resolution 109: Recognizing the Duty of the Federal Government to Create a Green New Deal, which was introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey. The big secret is that it’s only 14 pages! It makes a clear, compelling and concise case for what comprehensive climate policy should look like in the US. We’d love for everyone to read it so we can all have a more grounded discussion about what we might agree and disagree with and chart a course forward.

9. “Think This Pandemic Is Bad? We Have Another Crisis Coming” by Rhiana Gunn-Wright

Speaking of policy … this op-ed, penned by Rhiana Gunn-Wright, who is one of the policy leads for the Green New Deal, makes the connections between climate, justice, COVID-19 and our recession as clear as day. She lays out an ironclad case for the the need to address these issues together, and why. As she writes, “We need to design the stimulus not only to help the US economy recover but to also become more resilient to the climate crisis, the next multitrillion-dollar crisis headed our way.”

10. “How Can We Plan for a Future in California?” by Leah Stokes

In the midst of raging fires and continuing pandemic, UC Santa Barbara Professor Leah Stokes, who’s based in Santa Barbara, lays it plain in her piece: “I don’t want to live in a world where we have to decide which mask to wear for which disaster, but this is the world we are making. And we’ve only started to alter the climate. Imagine what it will be like when we’ve doubled or tripled the warming, as we are on track to do.” As she and others have been pointing out, journalists have been failing to make the critical connection: “What’s happening in California has a name: climate change.”

11. HEATED by Emily Atkin

This is the reading rec that keeps on giving, literally — it’s a daily newsletter that brings climate accountability journalism right to your inbox. It’s chock full of smarts, spunk, truth-telling and super timely writing that isn’t hemmed in by media overlords. If you’re pissed off about the climate crisis, Emily Atkin made HEATED just for you.

12. The July 20 2020 Issue of TIME Magazine

This entire issue, titled “One Last Chance”, is dedicated to coverage of climate, and it includes wise words from so many luminaries from politician Stacey Abrams to soil scientist Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, with a lead piece by Time’s climate journalist Justin Worland. Ayana also has a piece in this issue called “We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Unless Black Lives Matter.” To see all of this collected in one place — insights on topics from oceans to agriculture to politics to activism — was heartening. We hope there’s much more of this to come, from many magazines.

13. “Wakanda Doesn’t Have Suburbs” by Kendra Pierre Louis

A pop-culture connoisseur and expert storyteller, Kendra Pierre Louis takes up the topic of climate stories in her essay — the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good, she explains, are all too rare, and that’s a big problem because stories are powerful. Black Panther may be our best story of living thoughtfully and well on this planet, not least thanks to an absence of carbon-spewing suburbs. It’s going to take much better narratives, and many more of them, if humans are to, as she puts it, “repair our relationship with the Earth and re-envision our societies in ways that are not just in keeping with our ecosystems but also make our lives better.” !

14. “We Need Courage, Not Hope, to Face Climate Change” by Kate Marvel PhD

This piece by NASA climate scientist Kate Marvel is, as the kids say, a whole mood. Hope is not enough, hope is often passive, and that won’t get us where we need to go. Pretty much everyone who works on climate is constantly being asked what gives us hope — how presumptuous to assume we have it! But what we do have is courage. In spades. As Marvel writes in this poetic piece: “We need courage, not hope. Grief, after all, is the cost of being alive. We are all fated to live lives shot through with sadness, and are not worth less for it. Courage is the resolve to do well without the assurance of a happy ending.”

15. Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis

Admittedly, this last recommendation isn’t something to read, but to watch and listen to. This playlist of TED Talks by women climate leaders (who were all contributors to our anthology All We Can Save — read about it above) will inspire you, deepen your understanding, connect the dots and help you find where you might fit into the heaps of climate work that needs doing. It includes poignant talks by Colette Pichon Battle and Christine Nieves Rodriguez, which are respectively about communities in Louisiana and Puerto Rico recovering from hurricanes and rebuilding resilience and which broke our hearts open. We were so moved we invited them to adapt their talks into essays for All We Can Save. Christine’s piece — “Community is Our Best Chance” — is the final essay in the book and the note we want to end on here. It’s not about what each of us can do as individuals to address the climate crisis; it’s about what we can do together. Building community around solutions is the most important thing.

Watch Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s TED Talk here: 

Watch Katharine Wilkinson’s TED Talk here: 

Learn more about the global Countdown initiative, explore the lineup of speakers, and watch the event live on October 10th.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson PhD is a marine biologist, policy expert and Brooklyn native. She is founder of the nonprofit think tank Urban Ocean Lab, founder and CEO of the consultancy Ocean Collectiv and cocreator and cohost of the Spotify/Gimlet podcast How to Save a Planet. She coedited the anthology All We Can Save and cofounded The All We Can Save Project in support of women climate leaders. Her mission is to build community around climate solutions. Find her @ayanaeliza.

Katharine Wilkinson PhD is an author, strategist, teacher and one of 15 “women who will save the world,” according to Time magazine. Her writings on climate include The Drawdown Review, the New York Times bestseller Drawdown and Between God & Green. She is coeditor of All We Can Save and co founder of The All We Can Save Project, in support of women climate leaders. Wilkinson is a former Rhodes Scholar. Find her @DrKWilkinson.

This piece was adapted for TED-Ed from this Ideas article.

Monica Garwood

Being a writer is all about expressing your unique perspective with feeling and originality, not about having a huge vocabulary or getting published, says author Jacqueline Woodson.

She shares a little of what she’s learned in the process of writing a lot (30+ books!).

“Write something good, and feel good about writing it.”

That sentence is from award-winning writer Jacqueline Woodson — she just released Red at the Bone, a novel for adults — in response to the question “What’s the goal of writing when you’re 15?” (Side note: I, the interviewer, did not pose that query; she did. Yep, Woodson is the kind of intimidating and articulate person who can come up with thoughtful questions even during an interview.)

That sentence is great advice for writers of any age. And so, just because I can, I will repeat it: “Write something good, and feel good about writing it.”

Woodson and I are talking about writing because I’m a fan of hers and because I’m a mentor in a writing program for high-schoolers in New York City (Girls Write Now). I wanted to hear what insights and inspiration she had to offer those who aspire to do what she does. Once upon a time, she was a girl with a passion for words — “from the gate, I was like, ‘I want to be a writer — I want to write everything: poetry and short stories and fiction and …’” She’s gone on to write more than 30 books — including Miracle’s Boys, Brown Girl Dreaming and After Tupac and D Foster — that span all those categories and then some. Decades later, she still loves to write and re-write (more on the latter below).

Here’s what she had to say to aspiring writers:

Do you know lots of impressive words? Good — but try to keep them to yourself

“You don’t need to have a great vocabulary. What you need to have is a creative way of using the words you have. I think sometimes it is detrimental to writers to have too much of a vocabulary because they just rely on the word that they know how to define and they end up breaking the first rule of writing: Show, don’t tell.”

No one else sees the world quite the same way you do, so share your unique perspective

“Writing is about narrative language and creative language and being able to get a point across in a way that is not ordinary. More than having a large vocabulary, one needs a large vision and be able to see the world in a different way than other people see it.”

Look at picture books, even if you think you’re too old for them

“Young writers can learn so much from reading picture books and really engaging in the text and how the language is laid on the page. With picture books, [writers] are working with a reader who has a very short attention span and you have to get them from line one and hold them to page 32. That’s a challenge, but it’s also a challenge that’s not going to be intimidating for a young writer. It also allows them to experiment with tone and form, especially poetic form, because picture books are intentional, the line breaks are intentional, and each line is laying down an image.”

Woodson recommends checking out any of the illustrated books that have received the Caldecott Medal or the Coretta Scott King Book Award.

Write with feeling

“Writing is visceral. If you write something down and don’t feel some kind of way, then it’s not working. It’s not doing what you wanted to do.”

If it’s possible, set limits on the initial feedback you receive

“When I first write something, I show it to three people I trust. I tell them: ‘Tell me every single thing you love about it.’ That’s all I want to hear because it’s embryonic. It’s so fragile at that point because it’s so new that I’m not ready for questions, I’m not ready for it to be evaluated in any way. I just want to know what you love, because that’s going to make me excited to go back and write more of it.”

Seek out books that reflect you and your experience

“Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop talks about the importance of kids having both mirrors and windows in their fiction. (editor’s note: Bishop is referring to kids having the chance to read books that reflect them and their lives and books that give them portals onto different kinds of lives.) I think especially in our culture kids get a lot of books by white writers, no matter their color, so they can’t even imagine themselves as an Asian girl, a black girl, someone who is indigenous [and] being able to have a narrative. It’s hard to have a writer believe, ‘Yeah, I have license to tell a story without getting in trouble.’ To see parts of her narrative in cultures as close to hers as possible is helpful.”

If you can’t find writing that mirrors you, take it as your chance to fill in the gap

“As a kid, you have a right to be in the world fully and you have a right to see representations of yourself wherever you go. And if you don’t, write your way out. (editor’s note: like Alexander Hamilton.) Figure out why that is so, and rather than fixating on the dilemma of it, challenge it. Write the challenge, and that’s where your writing’s going to break through and create something new.”

Being a writer means being a re-writer

“Writing is a lot of work. When I look at Brown Girl Dreaming, I rewrote that book 33 times. When I look at Another Brooklyn, I rewrote that about 16 times. I think people like the idea of being writers; I don’t think they like being re-writers.

But what if you don’t like to re-write?

“You’re not going to like everything. There are some things that are going to be painful and you don’t want to do them, but the end result is going to be something that is better. I love re-writing now, but I’m old. I love it because I know when I finish re-writing, it’s going to be better than it was when I first wrote it.”

Get ready for your stories, articles, poems and essays to unravel — all of them

“It happens with every single piece. Your writing gets to this point, and it’s so fabulous and you love it. And then it falls apart. That’s the point where you have to start scaffolding it and building it and trying to figure out what is this piece trying to say and how is it trying to say it. A lot of people stop when the piece falls apart and think they’re going to start another one and they’re all going to fall apart.”

What you need to do at this moment: Don’t stop.

“It’s going to be the difference between finishing something and having a whole bunch of half-finished things in your drawer. For people who are starting out writing, know that your piece of writing is going to fall apart and it’s going to get really hard. But it’s the best place to be, because now your work is ahead of you. And you know what you have to do to make it better.”

Don’t fixate on getting published.

“Whenever kids start asking me about their stuff getting published, I’m like, ‘That’s not what you should worry about. You should worry about writing the best piece that you possibly can.’ Writing is such a process. It’s an ongoing process, and you don’t write something in September and have it published by December. It takes much longer. If you really want to invest in the world of writing, you have to invest time and labor and faith in it.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daryl Chen is the Ideas Editor at TED.

This post was originally published on TED Ideas. It’s part of the “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from someone in the TED community; browse through all the posts here.

You can find everything you need to know to read Mary Shelley’s classic novel “Frankenstein,” in this TED-Ed Lesson. But honestly, we’re just so wowed by the beautiful backgrounds in this lesson that we wanted to share some of the background and atmosphere designs with you! Here are a few favorites:

Above is the house of Lord Byron on Lake Geneva, where Mary and Percy Shelley spent their vacation in 1815. This was shortly after the eruption of Mount Tambora, which plunged parts of the world into darkness and marked a gloomy period that came to be known as The Year Without a Summer. Since they were stuck in a creepy house, Lord Byron proposed a challenge: Who could write the most chilling ghost story? This question sparked an idea in eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley who, over the next few months, crafted the story of “Frankenstein.”

Above is an image of Mary Shelley diligently writing. We love the composition and the use of color and shadows in this overhead shot of Shelley penning her famous novel.

Shelley was heavily influenced by the art and literature of the Romantic Period. Above, director Silvia Prietov uses the only somewhat sunny colors in the entire animation to describe the Romantic’s appreciation for nature, emotion, and the purity of art. This scene starkly contrasts the otherwise gloomy house and the fierce and fiery colors of the scenes in Frankenstein’s lab.

And finally, above is a delicate design depicting Mary Shelley at the window as we learn more about her life and past leading up to writing “Frankenstein”. We’re swooning over the details hiding in the shadows, the color choices, and the mood created in this scene, which invokes a pensive and rainy day.

To see all of the lovely art from this lesson, and to learn about the origins of “Frankenstein”, watch the TED-Ed Lesson below.

Animation directed by Silvia Prietov, designs by Andrés Felipe Landazabal. To learn more about animation, watch TED-Ed’s series of videos on ed.ted.com called Animation Basics.

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Maybe your beach vacation is more rocky coastline than sandy paradise.

Maybe happy endings just aren’t your thing. Whatever the reason, fear not: the books below will let you stay gloomy, if you like. [Note: several of these books are in the public domain and can be downloaded for free, here.]

Behold, your dystopian beach reading list:

1. 1984 by George Orwell

Published in 1949, George Orwell’s bleak dream of a future 1984 depicted a UK (“Oceania”) in which war was perpetual, facts were negotiable, and Big Brother was always watching. Bonus fact: Throughout the writing of this novel, his last, Orwell was extremely ill and often in physical pain. Nevertheless, he finished writing the book, and now we have the word Orwellian, in addition to these Orwellian gifts to the English language: Big Brother, doublethink, memory hole, Newspeak, telescreen, thought police — and more.

Watch: What “Orwellian” really means

2. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Set in the near future, near Boston, Margaret Atwood’s work of “social science fiction” portrays a US in which the Constitution has been overthrown by a religious sect that enslaves women.

Watch: Why should you read the “Handmaid’s Tale”?

3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Who preserves the human spirit in a highly technologically advanced world? Who gets to decide what humanity “should” think or feel? Brave New World is a philosophical cautionary tale about genetic selection, economic inequality, and pharmaceutical solutions to moral despair.

4. All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

Technology and climate change mix with romance and resilience in this award-winning YA novel, published in 2016. Recommended by film and culture writer Sheerly Avni, “this is the book you give to your friend who agrees that It’s the End of the World As We Know It, but still wants to Feel Fine.”

5. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Can you preserve your mind in a society where free will, self-expression and curiosity are under fire? This is the question at the heart of Bradbury’s 1953 classic. Set in a world where books are banned — and possessing, let alone reading them, is forbidden, the protagonist, Montag, is a fireman responsible for destroying what remains. But after meeting a woman named Clarisse, he begins to question everything he has ever known.

Watch: Why should you read “Fahrenheit 451″?

6. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

The first in Butler’s Earthseed series, the book follows Lauren Olamina in 2025, in a world that has descended into madness and anarchy. When a fire destroys her family’s compound— the last safe neighborhood on the outskirts of LA— Lauren is forced to make her way north to safety, and into a world of danger.

Watch: Why should you read sci-fi superstar Octavia E. Butler?

Find out why dystopian novels have been popular for centuries, and to learn how to recognize a dystopia:

Want more book recs? Here are 6 books to get you started in cli-fi

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Art credit: TED-Ed.

Armand Burger, Getty Images | iStock

All children deserve to learn in a safe, supportive educational environment. One education organization working toward this goal is GLSEN, which aims “to create safe and affirming schools for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.” Below, GLSEN ambassador and youth advocate Jeffrey Marsh offers 7 key pieces of advice for teachers in this excerpt from their excellent book, How To Be You:

I work with young people. They write to me all the time. They message me about their experiences. They communicate. They respect me. And there are a few magical things I’ve learned about how to treat them. If you really want to reach young people, if you want to know what helps them feel safe and cared for and ready to learn from you as an educator or school administrator or camp counselor, read on.

1. Really listen. Seems obvious, right? This is first because it is the most important. So many ills can be alleviated with concentrated respectful listening. You know deep down that you want to feel accepted and cared for and you want to feel like your opinions and experiences matter. The same is true for any student or young person you work with. Don’t dismiss. Don’t conflate. Don’t belittle and don’t rush any young person you’re talking to. Take the care you would give to a close friend and give that to a student. Sit for awhile. Pause before you respond. Really pay attention. Don’t cut them off. Listen. Also, don’t get all high and mighty. Assuming what someone means without actually asking for clarification is a big fat CDE: communication dead end. If you want a student to show up, then you need to do the work of showing them that it’s safe to do so. Along these lines, please ask follow-up questions. Don’t try to lead the conversation, but lean into it: “What do you mean?” Can you say more about that? Asking shows you care — it shows you’re listening.

2. Get to know the lingo. One of the best ways to show respect to someone from a different background or generation is to understand the terms they use — especially when it comes to how they define themselves. Some of my fans’ Twitter bios read like this: “I’m an a-romantic pansexual trans-fem DMAB.” I realized at a certain point that I needed a vocab lesson if I was going to be of any use at all! In my day (which wasn’t all that long ago) we didn’t use any of these terms. I needed to “meet them where they were” if I was going to connect with and help any young person. So I learned. I asked around. I found out what the terms were, what folks in school were using to define themselves and their experiences of the world. Knowing what the vocabulary was went a long way to helping me show that I meant business and was ready to accept and respect whoever I was talking to.

3. Lobby for safe spaces (or create them). Sometimes a teacher needs to be the one to advocate for the use of school space for clubs and gatherings that the school deems controversial or unimportant. Whether it’s an LGBT or religious or just a hobby club, young people need at least one safe space to make connections with peers and find out they are not alone or freakish or as weird as they may be thinking. A safe space of this kind has several hallmarks. It is clean and respectful. It is private. It is free from other activities and groups. It is free from haters and bullies, whether they are students or teachers who disagree with what the club is offering. If a school refuses to allow a safe space that you know your students need, look for ways to assist with the club outside your school.

4. Take a forthright unequivocal stand against bullying. In big ways and small ways, in your private life and in your public persona as an educator, you must take an anti-bullying stance. If any student senses an attitude of “Boys will be boys” or “Kids need to toughen up” or “It’s not that big of a deal,” you’ve already lost them. If you aren’t willing to take a strong no-tolerance policy against bullying in your own school or classroom, you will never reach your students effectively. I’d recommend zero tolerance. If you witness bullying or you find out it’s going on, you must show all the kids involved that bullying behavior has real (negative) consequences. Many schools have a structure in place for this kind of disciplinary action and my advice is to use that structure without hesitation. If you want to reach young people, you must be willing to respect them by keeping them physically and psychologically safe while they learn. Work to make your school’s anti-bullying policy comprehensive. An appropriate policy should cover gender, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and all the reasons that kids are bullied.

5. Get help if you need it. Don’t believe the lie that you need to do it all yourself. You are not alone. There are a ton of organizations (GLSEN, for example) that love to help make schools safe for everyone. So Google for help. Reach out. Don’t get caught up in thinking that communicating with and helping students is all up to you.

6. Honor their experience. Just because you’re older and probably wiser doesn’t mean you’re right. If you disagree with a student, try interacting with them as you would with an adult. For whatever reason, many teachers just tend to assume that a student’s views and experiences are a little less valid than an adult’s. Why do we do this? It seems basically arbitrary in most respects. Sure, a young person is less like likely to have the depth and breadth of experiences that an adult has had, but that may not always be true. And if it is true, does it automatically mean that their opinions and experiences are somehow less valuable? Well…no.

7. Give yourself some credit. If only for just a moment, don’t judge your performance as a teacher; don’t get down about how you’re not doing this “right.” See yourself from the outside. Take note of how hard you’re trying. Notice how hard the profession of teaching can be. And notice how deeply impactful you are every day. We all remember the teacher who inspired us, who was nice to us when we needed it, or who we felt really got us. You’re changing lives, and it’s totally okay to acknowledge your good hard work enthusiastically and often.

Author bio: Jeffrey Marsh is a youth advocate and the author of How To Be You.

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Every great book is a portal — to adventure, to knowledge, or to new perspectives. Beyond the world’s required reading list, what books do high school and middle school students love to read? We asked TED-Ed Club Members around the globe to share their favorites. Below, check out 10 great books recommended by and for young people:

1. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Susan Eloise Hinton wrote The Outsiders while she was a high school student in Oklahoma. Fifty years later, her fictional account of two rival gangs still provides a riveting look at teen friendship, rebellion, and class issues. Bonus: it “teaches us how to be more tolerant,” says Artem Kotov, a student in Moscow, Russia.

2. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
This heartbreaking, beautiful novel comes highly recommended by Libby Driscoll, a student in Shropshire, England. “It has a deep, sensitive main character who expresses her emotions so well and brings tears to my eyes every time,” says Libby.

3. Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
The author interviewed more than 200 experts, industry leaders, and top athletes about their personal tools for success — and then published their tips in this nonfiction book. It’s recommended by Nguyen Mac, a student in Warsaw, Poland. “This isn’t your typical self-help book,” says Nguyen.

4. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh
In this retelling of A Thousand and One Nights, the female protagonist is a seriously strong character, capable of more than just defending herself. “I have reread this duology (the first book being The Wrath and the Dawn, the second being The Rose and the Dagger) about 7 times now. I love it more every time,” says Irfhana Zakir Hussain, a student in California, USA.

5. The Labyrinth of Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
This novel comes highly recommended by Donatella Galeazzi, a student in Puebla, Mexico. “Read it in Spanish” to boost your vocabulary, suggests Donatella.

6. I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
This bestselling novel about two twins is recommended by Thu Ho, a student in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Why? Because the book is beautifully written, says Thu. Also, the language underscores “the realistic imperfection of the two main characters.”

7. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Millions of people have read this classic nonfiction book about how to live a principled life. This recommendation comes from Ridhima Behal Bharara, a student in Punjab, India, who calls the book “inspirational.”

8. Looking for Alaska by John Green
The winner of several awards for young adult fiction, this novel is recommended by Simran Malhotra, a student in Georgia, USA. One reason? “It has a great moral,” says Simran.

9. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
This strange tale has captivated readers since 1891. “The portrayal of Dorian’s struggle with his outer appearance vs. his inner identity is something a lot of people can relate to,” says Vitalia Vazheyevska, a student in Warsaw, Poland. “The characters are well thought-out, and every little element of the story is symbolic.”

10. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
First published in 1903, this novel stars a sled dog named Buck — and describes the cold, brutal reality of the Klondike Gold Rush era. “You feel the raw power in every word,” says Trisha Iyer, a student in California, USA.

To connect students in your community with students around the world, start a TED-Ed Club.

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This compilation of reading assigned to students everywhere will expand your horizons — and your bookshelves.

In the US, most students are required to read To Kill a Mockingbird during their school years. This classic novel combines a moving coming-of-age story with big issues like racism and criminal injustice. Reading Mockingbird is such an integral part of the American educational experience that we wondered: What classic books are assigned to students elsewhere?

We posed this question to our TED-Ed Innovative Educators and members of the TED-Ed Community. People all over the globe responded, and we curated our list to focus on local authors. Many respondents made it clear in their countries, as in the US, few books are absolutely mandatory. Below, take a look at what students in countries from Ireland to Iran, Ghana to Germany, are asked to read and why. [Note: To find free, downloadable versions of many of the books listed below, search Project Gutenberg.]

Afghanistan

Quran
What it’s about: The revelations of God as told to the prophet Muhammad, this is the central religious text of Islam and remains one of the major works of Arabic literature.
Why it’s taught: “Overall, there is no culture of reading novels in my country, which is sad,” says Farokh Attah. “The only book that must be read in school is the holy Quran, and everyone is encouraged to read it starting from childhood.”

Albania

Kronikë në gur (1971) by Ismail Kadare
What it’s about: Known in English as Chronicle in Stone, this novel is told through the eyes of a child and shows how different conquering forces — Italian fascist, Greek and Nazi — ravage a small Albanian city during World War II.
Why it’s taught: Kadare is one of the most critically acclaimed Albanian writers, and was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. This book “helps you understand vividly what World War II meant for the people who lived through those events,” says Vaitson Çumaku. “Because it’s from the perspective of a child, it also shows you that there can be optimism during hard times.”

Australia

Tomorrow, When the War Began (1993) by John Marsden
What it’s about: A teenage girl and her friends return from a camping trip to find that an unidentified foreign military force has invaded Australia.
Why it’s taught: This book “speaks to our fear of invasion and our fighting spirit,” says Beth James Waters. It also “beautifully portrays the vastness of and abundant natural dangers in our land.”

Austria

Faust (1787) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What it’s about: In this play, a scholar named Faust makes a pact with Mephistopheles — the devil — because Faust is dissatisfied with life. The devil says he will grant Faust a transcendent moment, but in return, Faust must act as his servant for eternity in hell. Through the devil’s intervention, Faust falls in love with a beautiful young girl named Gretchen. Tragedy ensues.
Why it’s taught: It raises many vast philosophical debates, including science versus spirituality, reason versus passion, and salvation versus damnation, and “it can be interpreted in many ways,” says Barbara Paulmayer. “Faust is not as easy to understand as newer pieces of literature, so it stimulates students to think in a different way.” In addition, its plot and themes have gone on to influence many other works.

Bosnia; Serbia

Na drini ćuprija (1945) by Ivo Andrić
What it’s about: Known in English as The Bridge on the Drina, this novel sweeps through 300 years in a small town near the Mehmed Pasha Sokolović bridge. Its story begins in the 16th-century Ottoman Empire, when the bridge was built, to World War I, when it was partially destroyed.
Why it’s taught: Andrić received a Nobel Prize, and so far he has been the only Nobel Prize winner from Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia. “It is truly a timeless book,” says Martin Kondža. “Its themes and stories also apply to humanity today. The bridge acts as a dumb witness to empires being born and crushed, human lives reaching their peaks and depths, and countries being established and destroyed.”

Brazil

Morte e vida Severina (1955) by João Cabral de Melo Neto
What it’s about: Known in English as The Death of a Severino, this play in verse is about the arduous journey of a man who is fleeing the drought- and poverty-stricken northeastern region of Brazil in search of a better situation and the city.
Why it’s taught: “It shows the dual conditions that the country has always presented and still presents — poor lives, inequality, ignorance, and silent people, versus a city population, with all its advantages — and the distance between these two groups,” says Andrea Rodrigues.

Bulgaria

Under the Yoke (1894) by Ivan Vazov
What it’s about: This novel looks at a Bulgarian village under Ottoman rule and depicts a failed insurrection in the 1870s that helped trigger the country’s eventual breakaway. The large cast of characters includes villagers on both sides of the rebellion.
Why it’s taught: For one thing, Vazov is seen as the father of Bulgarian literature. But, adds Kristine O’Malley, “Being enslaved by the Ottoman Empire and the struggle for independence have shaped the national identity of Bulgarians,” making this book a perennially popular read.

Canada

The Wars (1977) by Timothy Findley
What it’s about: Robert Ross, a 19-year-old Canadian, tries to cope with the death of his sister by enlisting to fight in World War I. Beset by his own demons, he travels to France where he fights in the trenches and sees the worst of warfare — and of humanity.
Why it’s taught: “It’s an iconic Canadian novel. It’s so brutally honest in its depiction of war, sorrow, and coming to terms with an uncaring world in one’s own way,” says Karen Goepen-Wee. “This text does not tread lightly around the angst and horror of World War 1 for Canadian soldiers,” says Will Gourley.

Chile

Sub Terra (1904) by Baldomero Lillo
What it’s about: This short-story collection is about the backbreaking, impoverished, dangerous existence of coal miners in southern Chile in the late 19th century.
Why it’s taught: “Sub Terra represents an important part of Chile’s history,” says Natalia Salamanca Moreno. “These stories show students a lifestyle that is completely different from theirs today, which can help them appreciate what they have now. The stories also emphasize important, timeless family values, like being thankful for your parents and their efforts.”

China

Analects by Confucius
What it’s about: This book is a compilation of the teachings of the ancient philosopher Confucius; it’s believed to have been written sometime between 475 BC and 221 BC.
Why it’s taught: “Teachers want students to learn good morals from the Analects, like showing respect to your parents, learning merit from others no matter their status, and using critical thinking,” says Aylee Lu. “This book remains a cornerstone of Chinese culture.”

Colombia

Cien años de Soledad (1967) by Gabriel García Márquez
What it’s about: This pioneering fictional work of magical realism — known to English-language readers as 100 Years of Solitude — traces the rise and fall of a fictional Colombian town through five generations of the Buendía family, starting in the early 19th century.
Why it’s taught: Márquez is considered one of the most important writers in the Spanish language, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. This novel depicts the violence that has plagued Colombia for decades, and “shows how much corruption and suffering Colombians have endured,” says Daniela Ramirez Barreto. “Yet there is something about us that refuses to give up.”

Cyprus

The Murderess (1903) by Alexandros Papadiamantis
What it’s about: This novella is about an old woman named Hadoula who lives on the island of Skiathos. She murders poor young girls as a kind of mercy killing, since she views their future prospects to be limited and bleak.
Why it’s taught: “It sheds light on the role of women and on gender roles within marriage; these are of great importance in Cyprus and Greece,” says Evanthia Poyiatzi. “And it makes students decide whether the woman’s behavior is ethical or unethical.”

Egypt

The Days (1935) by Taha Hussein
What it’s about: This book is the autobiography of intellectual and writer Hussein, who lived from 1889 to 1973. He became blind at the age of 3 but grew up to be the minister of education in his country and is one of the most influential figures in Egyptian literature.
Why it’s taught: The book teaches students “the importance of gathering knowledge, the need to rebel against traditions and the negative effects of ignorance upon individuals in a society,” says Mahmoud Attalla.

Finland

Seitsemän veljestä (1870) by Aleksis Kivi
What it’s about: Known in English as Seven Brothers, this book is about a quarrelsome family of seven brothers and their struggles in rural Finland. They eventually grow and mature into decent members of society.
Why it’s taught: It is believed to be the first truly Finnish novel by a Finnish author in the Finnish language about ordinary people. “It’s considered the national novel of Finland,” says Jaani Länsiö. “It’s about Finnish stubbornness.”

Germany

Tagebuch der Anne Frank (1947)
What it’s about: Known in English as The Diary of Anne Frank, this journal was kept by a Jewish girl named Anne Frank as she lived with her family in hiding in Amsterdam under Nazi occupation.
Why it’s taught: “We should never forget what horrors were unleashed by narrow-thinking people,” says Charlotte Böhm.

Ghana; Nigeria

Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe
What it’s about: Set in Nigeria in the 1900s, this novel follows Okonkwo, an Igbo leader and village wrestling champion, his journey to power and glory, and his eventual fall when he fights back against white colonialists.
Why it’s taught: “On the surface, it’s a celebration of African traditionalism and how those ideals were washed away with the coming of the missionaries,” says Ama Y Adi-Dako. “At the heart of it, though, it is a critical look at the concept and drawbacks of African and tribal masculinity.”

India

Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth (1927-1929) by Mohandas K. Gandhi
What it’s about: The Indian leader’s memoir covers his life from his childhood to his early 50s.
Why it’s taught: “This book upholds the essence of living a life with dignity, which is possible only through truth and nonviolence,” says Bismi Sain.

Indonesia

Laskar Pelangi (2005) by Andrea Hirata
What it’s about: Known in English as Rainbow Troops, this novel is based on a true story about ten students from a remote village in Indonesia who, with the help of a pair of inspiring teachers, learn to stand up for themselves and their community.
Why it’s taught: It teaches “sacrifice, dedication, hard work, passion, brotherhood, friendship, optimism and perseverance in the face of challenges,” says Mahrukh Bashir.

Iran

Poems by writers such as Hafiz, Sa’Addi, Ferdowsi, Rumi and Khayyam
What they’re about: Love, beauty, joy and other themes.
Why they’re taught: “In Iran, the novel is a relatively newer form of literature,” says Ne Da. “But among our literary classics are abundant poets and poetry. Each poem speaks to a different value.”

Ireland

Ice Man: the Adventures of an Irish Antarctic Hero (2003) by Michael Smith
What it’s about: It’s a biography of Tom Crean, an Irish boy who ran away from home at the age of 15 to join Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Antarctic voyage. He was also a member of Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance expedition.
Why it’s taught: “It shows that the Irish are ambitious explorers who can triumph over adversity and that through hard work, focus and dedication, everything is possible,” says Naoimh Riordan.

Italy

I Promessi Sposi (1827) by Alessandro Manzoni
What it’s about: Known in English as The Betrothed, this novel takes place in northern Italy in the first half of the 17th century. Italy was not yet a nation, and this book shows the lives of villagers living under repressive Spanish rule as well as the impact of a deadly plague that killed many people.
Why it’s taught: “I Promessi Sposi is one of the two pillars of Italian literature,” says Sofia Ramundo. “It is considered the blueprint for historical novels,” says Michela Sacchi O’Brien.

Pakistan

The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) by Mohsin Hamid
What it’s about: An international bestseller, this novel follows the story of a Pakistani man as he reflects on his time in the United States before and after the events of September 11, 2001.
Why it’s taught: “These books touch the unique dilemmas faced by modern Pakistanis who are struggling with fundamental ideals and trying to find their own identity,” says Vajiha Atiq.

Philippines

Noli Me Tangere (1887) by Jose Rizal
What it’s about: Rizal went on to be a hero of the Philippine revolution, and his novel — the English-language title is Touch Me Not — shows life in the Philippines society under cruel, repressive, arbitrary Spanish Catholic rule.
Why it’s taught: By combining a dramatic story with an activist message, this novel has been compared to Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It is taught to help students “appreciate the efforts of our forefathers in shaping our independence,” says John Eric Uy.

Russia

War and Peace (1869) by Leo Tolstoy
What it’s about: Following the lives and loves of five families, this epic novel begins in 1805 and continues through Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia.
Why it’s taught: War and Peace “is basically speaking about every aspect of our life: how to be valuable in society, how to be forgiving, and how to be respectful,” says Valentina Ishmanova. “I believe everyone goes through the same situations as Tolstoy’s characters Natasha, Pierre, and Prince Andrei.”

US

To Kill A Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee
What it’s about: A classic novel about the American South in the 1930s that illustrates how racism, sexism and injustice have shaped US history (and still cause harm today).
Why it’s taught: “We’re still dealing with racism and systematic prejudice, especially in the legal system in the US,” says Shaun McGovern. [Extra Resources: Teaching Mockingbird.]

Vietnam

Truyện Kiều (1820) by Nguyễn Du
What it’s about: It’s an epic narrative poem about a young woman named Thuý Kiều who is driven to sacrifice herself to save her family.
Why it’s taught: Known in English as The Tale of Kiều, the poem shows “the humanity and the beauty of my country,” says Joy Truong, who adds that she likes its positive qualities, a stark contrast to most other stories and poems which “focus on the difficulties of the Vietnamese.”