By Sophia Steele

Character Design by Monique Steele

Island Guardians is a climate zine that introduces young readers to climate change and its impacts on the land and oceans through imaginative, character-driven storytelling. Three island guardians–Bella the Banana Fairy, Clara the Conch, and Paige the Pirate–each answer a question about climate change: How Does Climate Change Affect the Food We Eat? What Happens When the Ocean Gets Warmer? and Where Does Our Plastic Go?

The zine draws on environmental challenges across the Caribbean and beyond, including including hurricane-affected banana farms in Jamaica, coral reef health and overfishing in The Bahamas, and plastic pollution in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It invites children to approach these issues with curiosity and optimism.

The zine includes several interactive tools, including a climate pledge that children can sign to become “Climate Guardians,” a climate action checklist with accessible actions like starting a compost and using a reusable water bottle, and a glossary introducing key terms such as biodiversity, climate resilience, and microplastics.The final chapter features a Climate Literacy Resource Library that connects readers with organizations where they can continue learning about the environment. Readers can also contribute additional resources to the growing catalogue by scanning a QR code.

After reading, I want children to feel a shared responsibility for caring for the Earth and understand that small actions can make a difference. I also want them to develop the vocabulary and climate literacy to ask questions, participate in conversations about the environment, and understand the climate stories they encounter in their everyday lives. Ultimately, Island Guardians is designed to help children see themselves as active participants in shaping the future of the planet. The zine can also serve as a resource for parents, educators, and community organizers seeking to make climate education in classrooms and workshops more accessible and engaging.

25, Ithaca, NY

Growing up, I often felt disconnected from my Jamaican heritage. My knowledge of Jamaica came primarily through secondhand stories my parents shared about my late grandfather. As I got older, I wanted a way to experience the island’s culture for myself, which led me to the Adisa Ancestry Artists Residency.

The two-month residency in the quiet countryside of Linstead gave me the opportunity to immerse myself in Jamaican life. I toured sprawling 50-acre orange and coconut farms and listened to the quick banter of Patois as I bought veggie patties and breadfruit at Linstead Market. I spent evenings attending independent one-woman shows and student-run art galleries, connecting with multidisciplinary scholars and visual artists. Being immersed in these creative ecosystems helped me begin to fill in the gaps in my cultural knowledge that had accumulated over decades.

One experience that stayed with me most was visiting an elementary school in Hanover, where students were returning to school for the first time after being displaced for four months following Hurricane Melissa. Despite what they had experienced, the children showed up excited and eager to learn. Reading to them and witnessing the care among the teachers and school staff reminded me of the importance of passing knowledge and a love of learning from one generation to the next. I left the school with a question: How could I use storytelling to help children navigate an increasingly uncertain world?

Learning from talented artists through the Climate Storytelling 2027 Fellowship, while screening films like ASALI: Power of the Pollinators for the Climate Film Festival NYC, helped me form a tangible answer to that question. Island Guardians is a first step in my vision for creating educational media that gives the next generation the tools to understand their changing world and envision themselves as active participants in shaping its future.