I SEEM to be very out of date as I thought that the Ladybird books were about Peter and Jane and aimed at young readers.

I recently wrote about the importance of climate change being part of the primary school curriculum, at an appropriate level, from reception upwards, and I expected that the recent Ladybird book on Climate Change would be a real opportunity to open the eyes and ears of very young people.

However Prince Charles’s contribution, helped by a couple of climate change academics, has missed a real opportunity, as there’s no mention of Peter and Jane. It’s a good job that his commitment to the planet and the protection of its environment just outweighs his role in an undemocratic, medieval and irrelevant institution.

I was really looking forward to seeing how the experts would describe the way that human behaviour is changing the climate so young ears and minds can understand, so I was disappointed to find that the account is aimed at older, adult readers and isn’t at all like the Ladybird books I read with my children. However it’s a sound read for folk who want to find out what the problems and solutions are, but it’s a missed trick.

I was hoping it would introduce small children to the idea that we breathe air, perhaps with a lot of puffing and blowing, and that we need the oxygen it contains. This could lead on to the idea of the atmosphere, and that it’s cooler on cloudy days and in winter, and generally warmer when the sun shines.

They can ask grandparents about winters in the past, do experiments that show warm water expanding and ice melting, then think about sea levels rising, and find out what trees are made of, and so on.

It’s their future, not ours.