Book Review: Onward: 16 Climate Fiction Short Stories to Inspire Hope
Review by Janice Ewing
For several years, the West Chester Writing Project has run a social justice study group. The group has taken different forms, but we have always turned to shared readings as a focus for our discussions. This summer, we decided to read Onward: 16 Climate Fiction Stories to Inspire Hope, edited by Nora Shalaway Carpenter. We chose this text for a few reasons.
First, we’re increasingly aware of the role of climate change in our lives. We are inundated with news of catastrophic events that are becoming more the norm than the exception. At the same time, we see the variability of reactions to the issue, from support for scientific research and adjustments to our personal and communal lives, to denial and enactment of policies that exacerbate the problem. Perhaps most concerning is the sense of hopelessness that can spread, especially among young people, when they see climate-related disasters unfold before their eyes. The stories in this book don’t shy away from the harsh realities of water shortages, fires, and floods, but they all contain young adult characters who exhibit agency, creativity, and persistence in the midst of extreme conditions. To me, this was the essence of “hope” in this collection – not that we don’t face enormous challenges, but that our individual and collective actions can still make a difference.
The stories are all fictional, but they include realistic fiction, science-fiction, dystopian, and other genres; individual readers will connect more with some than others, but the variety is an additional strength of the book. For example, in “The Care and Feeding of Mother” by Erin Entrada Kelly, a seventeen year old girl harbors a secret – she has a real plant on a futuristic planet in which nature as we know it has been destroyed. Can she nurture it and spread its roots? In “A Trashy Love Story” by Sara Aronson, the teenage daughter of a rabbi is caught shoplifting. As part of her atonement, she reluctantly joins a community environmental group and finds an unexpected sense of purpose in her life. In Nora Shalaway Carpenter’s “Armadillo by Morning,” a group of teenage friends in North Carolina find their relationships tested when issues of climate change, respect for nature, and economic hardships collide over the sudden appearance of an armadillo.
This element of variety within a common theme was another one of our reasons for choosing this book for summer reading. Our thinking was that it would lend itself to each member sharing a story that especially resonated with them, whether because of subject matter, characterization, or writing style. This same strategy could be adapted by other groups of teachers and students. In addition, the stories in the collection could serve as models for students writing their own climate-related fiction and perhaps creating a class anthology.
If you are interested in our social justice group, please check the West Chester Writing Project website for more information. All are welcome!
Carpenter, Nora Shalaway. (2026). Onward: 16 climate fiction stories to inspire hope.
Charlesbridge, MA
Janice Ewing is a 2004 fellow of the West Chester Writing Project (the Pennsylvania Writing and Literature Project at that time) and a current member of the advisory board. Her interests include teacher inquiry, collaboration, and mentoring. She and Dr. Mary Buckelew, are the coauthors of Action Research for English Language Arts Teachers: Invitation to Inquiry (Routledge, 2019).
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