For me, it was important that the book taught about being vegan through compassion, not fear, and not anger. There’s enough negative emotions like that in the world, and I didn’t want to contribute to it. Parents seemed to like the message the book portrays. It educates the concept of being a vegan, without pushing “being a vegan” on people.
Author and illustrator Ruby Roth presents her new children’s book, Vegan Is Love, introducing young readers to veganism as a lifestyle of compassion and action. Roth illustrates how our daily choices ripple out locally and globally, conveying what children can do today to protect animals, the environment, and people across the world.
Traditionally, stories involving Thanksgiving end up with a turkey on the table, but as more families are celebrating Thanksgiving by seeking more mindful and compassionate choices, they’re also looking for children’s stories where the turkey has a happy ending. Here are 9 turkey-friendly picture books.
This paper addresses the meat paradox: how people can love animals and love meat. In this study we manipulated whether people categorized an animal as meat or non-meat. We found that being categorized as meat led to people to reduce the animals perceived capacity to suffer. This reduced capacity to suffer undermined the animal’s moral standing.
Upon first glance of Roth’s children’s book, That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals, one is immediately taken by the compelling illustrations and simple yet thoughtful messages as it guides us through the natural world of animals and contrasts it with the world of animals on farms today. We discovered this book on a LinkedIn group where it raised much interesting discussion about when and how children should be made aware of the realities of modern farming. Here is our interview with Roth about the book and beyond.
Author, ethologist and biologist Dr. Jonathan Balcombe is breaking new ground in our understanding of and appreciation for animals. For many, Second Nature, his last book, was their first introduction to his fascinating and brave new world of animal behavior. His new book, The Exultant Ark: A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure, promises to broaden even more the base of his audience with compelling visual references for all of the major insights in the book.
In the study of animal behavior and intelligence, Jane Goodall may be the first name that comes to mind, but author and researcher Dale Peterson is no less important in bringing a new understanding, not only of animals but of evolution. In his new book, The Moral Lives of Animals, Peterson shows how much animal behavior follows principles embodied in humanity’s ancient moral codes, from the Ten Commandments to the New Testament. In this book what we can learn about animals also applies to what we can learn about ourselves.
UK Author Joseph D’Lacey has taken the literary world by storm with his recent novel, MEAT: You Are What You Eat. The transformative power of this book and the creative ways it has been marketed have together made it a phenomenon in Europe. And in 2011 it will be released in the US. MEAT has been translated into German, French, Hungarian, Russian and Turkish and was optioned for film in ’08. MEAT also secured him the British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer in 2009. After numerous press appearances and 30,000 books sold, D’Lacey shares with us the fascinating background story and ideas that led to the writing of this profound work of fiction.
