Lena of Vegitopia and the Mystery of the Missing Animals VEGAN CHILDREN'S BOOK - Hardcover

Sybil Severin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1940184002 ISBN 13: 9781940184005

Publisher: Vegan Publishers, 2014

Synopsis

Lena of Vegitopia and the Mystery of the Missing Animals is a vegan-themed fairy tale about how one brave little girl stands up for the animal friends of her land and helps rescue them from being eaten. The book promotes messages of kindness, compassion, and action and shows that magical things can happen when you harness the power of veggies.

About this title

Review:

While my daughter loved that there was a princess in the book, I loved this fanciful tale about Vegitopia for the peaceful existence the animals and humans live in - made me wish I lived there too! And I admit, the part where the baby animals went missing caught in my throat, because that is reality for so many animals. Fortunately, with Lena Lentil Bean and the princess, the ending is a happy one. (And with a yummy vegan recipe at the end too!) --P is for Preschooler

The story takes place in Vegitopia, a land where humans and animals live in peace together and no one would ever dream of eating animals. One day, a little girl named Lena who has her own lettuce patch learns that the babies of Vegitopia are going missing. She sends a letter to Princess Vegi for help. The Princess informs her that a bad woman named Carnista took the animals to eat them because Carnista hates vegetables. Lena and Princess Vegi hurry off to Carnista s castle to save the babies. Of course, Carnista refuses to let the baby animals go, arguing that she has an appetite and can t be expected to live on icky fruits and vegetables. Then Lena has an idea: she gives Carnista a piece of vegan carrot cake she had been saving in her pocket as a snack. Carnista likes it so much that she lets the babies go and decides never to eat meat again. After a while, her castle stops smelling so foul, the smog around it goes away, and Carnista even starts looking better too. I was a little worried that this story would be too traumatic for my 4-year old (she is really sensitive about kidnapped baby animals!), but the book doesn t show any pictures of the baby animals locked up so it didn t produce any tears. It was also refreshing that Lena and Carnista didn t argue about eating baby animals is wrong, since any child inherently understands that taking baby animals from their parents is bad. Instead, Lena frees the animals simply by offering a piece of cake an approach to vegan activism which usually works better than arguing morals. Overall, Lena is a cute book which won t just reaffirm the decision not to eat meat, but teach children how to deal with the meat eaters they encounter. --Vegbooks

About this edition

• Publisher: Vegan Publishers
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1940184002
• ISBN 13: 9781940184005
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 44
• Illustrator: Carlos Patino