A Terra Carta for our Next Generation of Leaders

It's Up to Us - A Children's Terra Carta - is illustrated by 33 artists from across the globe, and includes a foreword from HRH The Prince of Wales. The story explains in lyrical text how Nature operates in a world without humans and shows the damaging impact people have had on the planet, it concludes by proposing a series of pledges we can all make, a Terra Carta, to help address these challenges.

Caroline Sanderson writes, in her article for The Bookseller, that, "The book combines the poetically rendered text with an impactful diversity of illustration styles: Gunnella from Iceland has pictured an Icelandic family planting trees; Black Douglas, an Australian illustrator who is partly of Aboriginal heritage, has created a moving portrait of desertification, with trees shaped like the letter Y; Poonam Mistry from India has used a style reminiscent of embroidery to illustrate a passage which speaks of the preciousness of the air, the soil and the oceans, while a spread by UK author and illustrator Nick Hayes employs a style derived from old woodcuts to portray a diver under water, surrounded by plastic."

A Pivotal Moment in Time

The book comes at a very important moment for Nature, people and planet. Our climate is changing, our forests and animal habitats are under threat and our oceans are being polluted. Time is quickly running out to protect our planet’s precious wellbeing, but, as this wonderful book shows young people, it’s not too late.

A sense of urgency lies at the heart of It’s Up To Us and is the reason the book's launch was timed to coincide with COP26 in Glasgow. The launch was complemented by sending all primary schools in Scotland a free copy of the book, along with a poster that lays out the all-important pledges.

More than a Book

Accompanying the book is a suite of online educational resources which help explain the issues presented in the book and explore what can be done about them. These digital resources are complemented by a suite of in-person It’s Up to Us learning engagements and workshops delivered at Dumfries House, The Prince’s Foundation’s headquarters in Scotland.

Schools can attend these education sessions either as day trips or as residential programmes, to explore the themes of Nature, people, and planet which feature in the Terra Carta. These engagements also help teachers find new approaches to teaching these issues in the classroom.

Global Publication

Following the UK launch during COP 26 in October 2021, a US version of the book will launch on the first of February 2022, and a Chinese version to follow later this year. Conversations are ongoing around several other foreign language versions.

It is the hope that this book, and accompanying resources, will inspire people of all ages to learn about, and engage with, the enormous challenges our planet faces and take positive actions to help protect it.

The book is currently for sale in all good bookshops, on and offline, in the UK. From February, it will be available in most online stores in the US and Canada, including through Barnes & Noble in the US and Indigo in Canada.