A lot of efforts go into raising the awareness of environmental issues since a very young age, including through children’s literature. The significance of this effort lies on the fact that children’s literature has always been a channel of representation and a simplified depiction of how society operates for young kids. This study examines two different fictional short stories with a shared theme originated from Bali, Indonesia and the United States entitled Luh Ayu Manik Mas: Pahlawan Lingkungan and “Greta and the Giants,” respectively. In some previous studies, scholars point out the caring nature of women within the relationship between women and nature, but it is bravery that becomes the most highlighted quality in these two stories, hence, “warriors”. The objectives of this research are 1) to describe the character development of the young girls in both short stories and 2) to explain the impact and interaction brought by the main characters towards their surroundings as instigators of change for the environment. In order to achieve these aims, two questions are formulated as follows: 1) How are the main characters developed in both short stories? and 2) How do the young girls portrayed as agent of change for the environment? This study is qualitative in nature which adopts content analysis as the method. The approach that is employed for this study is ecofeminism. Two results are obtained through this study, 1) both main characters undergo similar stages of development, which are: obliviousness, curiosity, willingness to change, and finally instigating a change. 2) Both young girls initiate the move of improving themselves and the environment around them by taking real actions and invite the people around them to do the same.

BASAbali. (2020). Luh Ayu Manik Mas, Luh Ayu Manik Pahlawan Lingkungan. https://dictionary.basabali.org/w/index.php?title=Childrens_Book_Luh_Ayu_Manik_Pahlawan_Lingkungan&uselang=en

Chatman, S. (1993). Reading Narrative Fiction. In The Personnel and Guidance Journal (Vol. 55). https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2164-4918.1976.tb04456.x

Cochrane, T. (2014). Narrative and Character Formation. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 72(3), 303–315.

Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches.

Creswell, J. W. (2018). QUALITATIVE INQUIRY & RESEARCH DESIGN: Choosing Among Five Approaches. In Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 6(11), 951–952. (Vol. 3).

Dewi, N. (2017). People and Nature in Asian Stories: Reading and Writing Materials for Eco Education. K@Ta, 19(1), 32–40. https://doi.org/10.9744/kata.19.1.39-46

Fielding, K. S., McDonald, R., & Louis, W. R. (2008). Theory of planned behaviour, identity and intentions to engage in environmental activism. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 28(4), 318–326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2008.03.003

Harwood, T. G., & Garry, T. (2003). An Overview of Content Analysis. The Marketing Review, 3, 479–498.

Lindenpütz, D. (2016). Children’s literature as a medium of environmental education. The culture of German environmentalism: Anxieties, visions, realities, 187-202.

Ling, C. (2014). Ecological Criticism Based on Social Gender: The Basic Principles of Ecofeminism. Higher Education of Social Science, 7(1), 67–72. https://doi.org/10.3968/4895

Livo, N. J. (2003). Bringing Out Their Best: Values Education and Character Development Through Traditional Tales.

Lubell, M. (2002). Environmental activism as collective action. Environment and Behavior, 34(4), 431–454. https://doi.org/10.1177/00116502034004002

Mauch, C. (2019). Transformations in Environment and Society Slow HopE Rethinking Ecologies of Crisis and Fear. (1), 1–43.

Paulsen, M., & Hawke, S. M. (2022). Pedagogy in the Anthropocene: Re-Wilding Education for a New Earth. In Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90980-2

Puleo, A. H. (2017). What is Ecofeminism? Quaderns de La Mediterrània, 27–34.

Septiaji, A., Zuriyati, Z., & Rahmat, A. (2020). Women’s Life in Indonesian Contemporary Short Stories: A Study of Ecofeminism Transformative. Indonesian Language Education and Literature, 5(2), 185. https://doi.org/10.24235/ileal.v5i2.5195

Sujinah, S., Muammar, M. A., & Affandy, A. N. (2018). Representation of Ecofeminism in Collections of Children’s Stories by Children’s Writers. ICEMSS 2018: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Emerging Media, and Social Science. https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.7-12-2018.2281815

Tucker, Z. (2019). Greta and the Giants: inspired by Greta Thunberg's stand to save the world. Frances Lincoln Children's Books.

Utami, H. P., Priyatna, A., & Prabasmoro, T. (2021). Luh Ayu Manik Mas Sebagai Representasi Superhero Perempuan Bali Dalam Komik. Patanjala: Journal of Historical and Cultural Research, 13(1), 103. https://doi.org/10.30959/patanjala.v13i1.718