This story feels like a passion project by writer Steve Cole, it is full of heart, soul and some genuinely moving moments.

About a boy called Carlos – who lives in the Amazon – the story follows him as he is kidnapped by a gang of illegal gold miners. He’s taken to the middle of the jungle, where the gang intend to use Carlos to blackmail his mother, who works as a Special Forces soldier trying to stop land-grabbers, farmers and gold miners from destroying the rainforest.

But Carlos manages to escape into the jungle and is helped by a strange, mutated boy called Davi. The boy, we learn, was part of a tribe who lived in the rainforest until his world was burnt down by illegal loggers. Davi and Carlos’s interaction – and their running from the Amazon fires – is a close-up reminder for children that we must take care of our planet and fight the people trying to destroy the “lungs of the earth”.

World Burn Down is another brilliant, exciting book with an environmental message by Barrington Stoke!

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