Letters To My Grandchildren

 Letters To My Grandchildren

Reviewed By  Grasshopper2       June 18, 2015

 

Author  David Suzuki

Distributor:     
ISBN:                 9781742234472
Publisher:         New South Publishers
Release Date:    

Website:    http://www.newsouthbooks.com.au 

In a very personal way, the David Suzuki acknowledges his aging and “elder “status. He is passionate about many issues surrounding the environment. Combining love of his family with his life’s work and dreams in a book is a clever meld.

He reveals many personal issues, spending time relating his grandparent’s decisions to migrate to Canada, and their decision to stay after the war. He was a lonely child, as the Japanese were interned in camps during the war and racially vilified after the war. He grew up with a love of the wilderness, which he roamed happily and he knew poverty. To help his family survive, he frequently dug fields of potatoes from early morning to late at night and so his respect for hard work was developed.

The lessons he wishes his beloved grandchildren to heed would probably be ones we would all endorse. In a chapter about the great depression, he encourages them to spend his money carefully.

He “discusses the state of the world “in great depth, and his background as a geneticist gives him much insight into problems facing our planet.

There is a chapter on “Aging and Death”, during which he openly talks about his own death and how he has written this book as a way of passing on all the things he finds most dear. His fight against global warming and environmental pollution is one that he hopes his grandchildren will continue.

There is a chapter for each grandchild, focussing on their accomplishments, and potentials and explaining how their parents and grandparents have been involved in their lives.

Values such as camping, sport and outdoor living, have been passed down as David believes they encourage a total sense of well-being. Being in the outdoors also encourages a greater understanding of nature the special part the environment plays in our lives.

That David has chosen to publish these messages to his grandchildren shows his determination for the world to become more aware and more caring of our planet for generations to come.

Biographies, Non Fiction