Greenwild

The conventions of middle-grade literature focus on featuring child protagonists and granting them full agency to make bold decisions that further the narrative. In Greenwild, this pattern manifests in the decisive actions of Daisy and her fellow members of the Five O’Clock Club as they work to rescue their parents and grandparents from Cardew’s clutches. By reversing the caretaking roles so that the children are working to protect their parents instead of the other way around, the novel suggests that children are the ideal agents of change because they hold clear-sighted and often uncompromising views of right and wrong.

In order to render the fantasy series relevant to the real-world concerns of modern readers, the author uses these common patterns of middle-grade literature to create a farm more specific message that upholds the tenets of environmentalism. To this end, she creates situations in which Daisy and her friends seek to protect their parents and the environment at any cost, and their actions pointedly contrast with the antagonists of the text and with the actions and attitudes of their adult allies. While Cardew and his compatriots actively seek to destroy the environment for their own profit, other adults who seek to protect nature—such as the members of the Bureau, who lead the Greenwild—decide that rescuing the captured Botanists would not be not worth the cost involved. When the adults callously frame a rescue mission as being too “costly” to pursue, the children are horrified because they see human life and natural bounty as priceless resources that cannot be quantified. Thus, the novel presents capitalism as a malevolent force that infects people and poisons their worldview until they sacrifice all virtues and values in order to seek money for their own personal gain. By contrast, the text suggests that children are more resistant to this mindset and can more readily seek ways to fight against the existing capitalist structures of exploitation.

While the child protagonists have the responsibility of enacting vital changes in their community and beyond, the adult characters consistently stand as barriers to constructive action. For example, whenever the children seek information, the adults intentionally hide it from them. Likewise, when the children are forced to act alone, they must hide their action from the adults, who would stop them in a misguided attempt to protect them. The novel therefore suggests that adults’ belief in their own better judgment is not always warranted.

Although Daisy does sometimes admit that her actions can be reckless, she eventually discovers the truth behind Cardew’s plans, defeating him and ultimately rescuing the kidnapped Botanists. In this context, her candid recognition of her own limits does not stand as a reason to deny children the opportunity to effect important change. Instead, the narrative suggests that children and adults both make mistakes, but that children’s idealism allows them to fight more earnestly for causes of global benefit; likewise, they are not caught up in the desire for personal gain at the expense of others. For this reason, the novel’s climax shows the children leading the charge against Cardew—who represents utter ecological destruction. The children’s eventual triumph also provides other adults with an ideal example of how best to prioritize responsible stewardship of the land over financial gain.