Just in Case: Saving Seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a new (2025) nonfiction picture book written by Megan Clendenan and illustrated by Brittany Cicchese. It is an educational book on a topic that is likely to be new to kids, and even to most adults: the concept of seed banks, and the specific reality of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. There are hundreds of seed banks around the world, all intended to husband seeds against possible threats, for the benefits of people and the natural world. (Some are dedicated to preserving biodiversity.) The book also educates readers on the nature of seeds–a longstanding reality–and the realities of industrial farming, a topic that is much more recent and pressing.
The illustrations are clear and helpful, but this is mainly a book of ideas. For the right kid, this will be very intriguing, and perhaps disturbing: the book touches on things like crops going extinct, and societies making plans to guard against disasters. There isn’t much of an active personal story here, but there are some nice poetic moments, and the images shift accordingly: the final two-page spread is essentially a meditation on mortality under the Northern Lights.
