Juta jumps in to teach young readers about environmental issues
Title: Facto and the Flixies
Author: Danie Schreuder
Publisher: Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd
ISBN: 9781485122609
Reviewed by: Fiona de Villiers
It’s great to see that publishing giants such as Juta are producing story books about environmental awareness for the very young.
I read Facto and the Flixies (FF) by Danie Schreuder, one of a series of little books for children in Grade 4 (and up), and found it charming. In an accompanying catalogue fact sheet, Juta says, “The Flixies stories have been written to address two critical crises: a literacy crisis and an environmental crisis.” Of the former, says Juta, “We have a generation who do not want to, or cannot read.” Of the latter, “Our planet is in trouble and young readers must be made aware of biodiversity and our responsibility to provide for the quality of life on earth.”
As you will learn from the summary on the back cover of FF, Facto, the central character, encounters “[a] colourful, singing group of weird, tiny creatures who live beneath the ground… [these] Flixies can communicate with small animals and can “listen in” when millions of plant roots talk to one another.”
