Frankfurt (AFP)

Children's books showing how to ban plastics from waste-free cooking recipes: this year's climate crisis is taking place at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

The first world publishing fair, which opens Thursday, encourages readers, young and old, to become actors for the planet. Selected examples.

- Spotlight on the "German Greta" -

She is often compared to Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg: Luisa Neubauer, a 23-year-old German student, icon in her home country of the young environmental activists movement of "Fridays For Future", was invited to debate with a local politician of mines of coal, in the line of sight of the defenders of the environment. She will also present her own book on the climate emergency.

"When you look at what is going on with our planetary system, it's scary, of course, and the question is how do you deal with it," said Neubauer in a video message for the show.

"Maybe we need some sort of rebellion or revolution," she added.

- Child's play -

Seeing teenagers from all over the world come out in the streets to cry out urgency in the face of climate change, publishers hastened to publish a range of books dedicated to the environment and aimed at a younger readership.

A cost-effective leap, judging by the nearly doubled one-year sales of climate-sensitive children's books in 2019 in the UK and India, according to Nielsen Book Research. They have also increased "noticeably" in Germany, according to GfK Entertainment.

"Children have seen images of hungry polar bears and have felt the effects of heat waves in the summer," says Ralf Schweikart, a German critic of children's literature, to explain this craze.

The books "can help them find answers to these emerging questions".

For parents who are afraid of devoting the evening reading of their offspring to anxious stories about the climate catastrophe, Schweikart recommends books that adopt a local and playful approach.

In his book "Plastique? Try sans!", Dela Kienle encourages ice cream lovers to opt for a cone rather than a cup or to organize parties without inflatable balls.

- Christmas without waste -

Adults too can learn to reduce their CO2 footprint through a host of practical books.

On a table lined with vegan or "waste-free" recipe books, readers are invited to become "conscientious" chefs and learn how to reuse broccoli stems in a salad, transform apple peels. in chips or cover the remains of a dish with an envelope made of beeswax instead of a film of food.

For the more converted, workshops on recycling are offered up to celebrate a "Christmas without waste" with newspapers used for decoration and used jeans gift wrappings.

- Edible straws -

Not to be outdone, the organizers of the show want to set an example in terms of ecological driving.

In the adjoining halls that will be borrowed by some 280,000 book lovers, the energy consumed comes partly from renewable sources.

The goal is to be able to switch completely to green energy next year, saving 19,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

The booths planned for more than 7,500 exhibitors are reused from year to year and the Fair's organizers have invited visitors to drink with "edible straws", explained the show's director, Juergen Boos.

© 2019 AFP