Christiana Figueres, Friend of the Rainforest

A girl’s love of the rainforest leads to a role helping to protect the planet in this climate-positive biography of Christiana Figueres (b. 1956), a diplomat behind the 2015 Paris Agreement. The daughter of a Costa Rican president who prioritized forest conservation, Figueres grew up riding her horse through forests where toucans, macaws, and golden toads lived and thrived. Emphasizing the figure’s worldview as one of hope, Engle moves quickly to Figueres’s adulthood; after golden toads go extinct, Figueres meets with “presidents, queens, and farmers” and others to understand and communicate scientific findings, and eventually works to establish the global treaty that set goals for slowing global warming. In colored pencil and marker, Hidalgo Lobo intersperses lush images of the rainforest with portraits of Figueres, highlighting how her childhood experiences led directly to her adult efforts. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Includes an author’s note. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)