Scan barcode
A review by 19paws
That's Why We Don't Eat Animals: A Book about Vegans, Vegetarians, and All Living Things by Ruby Roth
5.0
If I were rating this based just on how much I liked it, I’d give it four stars. I’m bumping that up to five stars because of how important I think this book is and because I'm grateful to Ruby Roth for writing it.
I had a few misgivings about That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals because I couldn’t really identify the reading level and figure out if it was appropriate for the intended audience. I think of picture books as being for preschoolers and young school-aged kids and I thought the text here was much too mature for that age group. A friend who is a former fourth grade teacher assured me that older kids read these books, too. My friend didn’t like this book (she hated the illustrations) but thought the reading level was okay. Her pre-teen granddaughter, who lives in a vegetarian family and is well on her way to being vegan, liked the book.
Apparently some reviewers have criticized Roth’s “unsubtle” illustrations portraying animals as cute and friendly in the wild but dirty and terrified on farms. Actually, I think Roth did a masterful job of portraying the “sad” conditions in which factory-farmed animals live, but in a way that was still appropriate for sensitive young children—ie, it didn’t come close to depicting how horrifying and inhumane conditions on today’s farms really are.
I had mixed feelings about the illustrations, especially the animals’ noses. The pigs’ noses look like electrical outlets! Overall, I thought the paintings were unique and interesting, though, and often appealing.
TWWDEA is intended for vegan families, of course. Every activist needs to petition local libraries to buy this book, though, with the hope that it will make its way into the hands and hearts of children in omnivore families, too.
I had a few misgivings about That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals because I couldn’t really identify the reading level and figure out if it was appropriate for the intended audience. I think of picture books as being for preschoolers and young school-aged kids and I thought the text here was much too mature for that age group. A friend who is a former fourth grade teacher assured me that older kids read these books, too. My friend didn’t like this book (she hated the illustrations) but thought the reading level was okay. Her pre-teen granddaughter, who lives in a vegetarian family and is well on her way to being vegan, liked the book.
Apparently some reviewers have criticized Roth’s “unsubtle” illustrations portraying animals as cute and friendly in the wild but dirty and terrified on farms. Actually, I think Roth did a masterful job of portraying the “sad” conditions in which factory-farmed animals live, but in a way that was still appropriate for sensitive young children—ie, it didn’t come close to depicting how horrifying and inhumane conditions on today’s farms really are.
I had mixed feelings about the illustrations, especially the animals’ noses. The pigs’ noses look like electrical outlets! Overall, I thought the paintings were unique and interesting, though, and often appealing.
TWWDEA is intended for vegan families, of course. Every activist needs to petition local libraries to buy this book, though, with the hope that it will make its way into the hands and hearts of children in omnivore families, too.