Fact Friday: Ducks Overboard: a True Story of Plastic in Our Oceans by Marcus Motum

Image: Candlewick Press

Ducks Overboard: a True Story of Plastic in Our Oceans by Markus Motum. unpgd. Candlewick Press, September, 2021. 9781536217728. (Review of finished copy courtesy of publisher.)

Happy Friday! I cannot believe that Christmas break starts next Friday! Fact Friday features Ducks Overboard: a True story of Plastic in Our Oceans by Markus Motum. Who doesn't love those seemingly ubiquitous little, yellow rubber ducks? They are produced in the thousands overseas and shipped by container ship all over the world. In 1992, one of those container ships ran into a storm at sea and a container with 28,000 rubber ducks fell overboard. This story is told by one of those ducks as it drifts further and further away from the other ducks, eventually ending up floating in a garbage patch. The duck notes how floating garbage such as plastic bags is mistaken for food and eaten by marine life and how treacherous abandoned fishing nets are to sea life. A double-page spread featuring a map of the world, shows how the ocean currents move and how some of the rubber ducks ended up traversing the Arctic Ocean to end up in the UK. Unlike, Ducky, written in 1997 by Eve Bunting, which depicted the event as an ocean adventure, this duck's tale informs the reader about the dangers of plastic pollution in the world's oceans. 

Back matter contains an explanation of ocean currents and some plastic facts, such as by 2050, scientists predict that there will be more plastic in the world's oceans than sea life. There are also tips about how each of us can help. 

The bright palette of the mixed-media illustrations are predominantly blues, with the sea life and bits of plastic pollution providing flashes of color.

Told in an age-appropriate, appealing way, Duck Overboard is a fantastic introduction to the effects of plastic pollution for our youngest readers.

Fact Friday: The Plastic Problem by Rachel Salt

Image: Firefly Books Ltd.

The Plastic Problem by Rachel Salt. 80 p. Firefly Books Ltd., September, 2020. 9780228102311. (Review of finished purchased ppb.)

Fact Friday features The Plastic Problem by Rachel Salt. If you're a regular reader of the Daily Book Talk, you may have noticed that plastic pollution is on my mind. Did you know that only 9% of plastic is recycled? According to this book, 79% goes into landfills, where it will sit for hundreds of years leaching chemicals. Much plastic ends up in streams, rivers and ultimately our oceans, where the wind and wave movements break up the plastic into tiny pieces, which marine life then eat mistaking it for food. The physical plastic in an animal's stomach can't be digested, takes up space and eventually leads to death by starvation or obstruction. The chemicals in microplastics are absorbed by the animals, which are part of a food chain and may end up on our dinner plates. Plastic has been around for about 100 years but, while good things have been possible thanks to plastic, other types of plastic, such as single-use plastic should be rethought. This attractively designed, easy-to-understand book explains it all and suggests ways that individuals can help using the 6 Rs. We know about the 3 Rs - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Consider 3 more - Refuse, Rethink and Repair. So look around your house. Do a plastic audit. Do you really need to buy cases of bottled water when you can refill a Swell bottle? Do you need plastic utensils and wrappings in your lunch box? Think about it and have a great Independence Day weekend!

PS: If you're having a get-together, try to avoid disposable party ware! 

Fact Friday and Arc Review: Kids Fight Plastic: how to be a #2minutesuperhero by Martin Dorey

Image: Candlewick Press

Kids Fight Plastic: how to be a #2minutesuperhero by Martin Dorey. 128 p. Candlewick Press, September 8, 2020. 9781536215878. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

Happy Friday! It's the second to last Friday of the school year! Fact Friday features Kids Fight Plastic by Martin Dorey. If reading Plastic Ahoy or The Plastic Sea didn't change your use of plastic, this eye-opening book will. Mr. Dorey is an anti-plastic activist who lives in England. He has written this short, accessible book to help children (and adults) survey their use of plastic through a series of sixteen challenges. Would-be super heroes collect points by completing tasks which vary in difficulty. Some require parental assistance.

The art was gray-toned in the arc, but promises the finished copy will be full-color. It's kid-friendly and energetic. The only thing I didn't love about design was the inclusion of baseball-type cards featuring fictional superheroes both human and animal. Not only did they not add anything, but they undermined the text. For example, a dolphin named Helford the Hero fights plastic by fighting the fishing line she was entangled in until she was rescued? I would've much preferred text boxes featuring real eco-warriors. I'm eager to get a student's opinion on this. 

I used to think I was pretty virtuous because I carry my own grocery bags, use a refillable water container and stopped using single-use plastic straws. But, what about my toothbrushes? How about my shampoo bottles? Plastic is everywhere and it's not good for the environment when it's chucked in landfills. Who doesn't love glitter and sparkly wrapping paper? Stop using it! I could go on, but I won't. Let me just say my world is rocked. I need to do better and this book will help me. 

Read Kids Fight Plastic and make your own plan for how you will lessen your negative impact on the environment and increase your positive impact. If everyone does a little, it might lead to a lot.

Fact Friday: Plastic Sea: a bird's eye view by Kirsti Blom and Geir Wing Gabrielsen

Fact Friday features Plastic Sea: a bird's-eye view by Kirsti Blom and Geir Wing Gabrielsen. unpgd. Wundermill Publishing Group/ The Cornell Labs Publishing Group, April, 2020. 9781943645503. (Review of finished purchased copy.)

Fact Friday features Plastic Sea: a bird's-eye view by Kirsti Blom and Geir Wing Gabrielsen. The problem of plastic is world-wide. This book was published in 2016 in Norway. It was translated and published here in the U.S. this spring. The narrative introduces the reader to a Northern Fulmer, a seabird who is adapted to spend days on the open ocean, returning to nest on cliffs and produce young. Unfortunately, plastic has become a part of their diet as it is often indistinguishable from its usual food. Plastic can't be digested and takes up space in the stomach leading the birds and all ocean life to slowly starve to death. According to the book, scientists know that 90% of Northern Fulmers have plastic in their stomachs. Humans use too much plastic and then throw it away instead of recycling it and it is killing ocean life. 

This oversized volume is filled with startling full-color photos and informative charts, such as one depicting, "How Long Until It's Gone?" Ingested plastic isn't the only danger to sea life. Plastic straws are inhaled and stuck in airways, ocean animals get stuck in abandoned fishing nets and drown or are strangled. The large font size and abundant white space make the message accessible and not too overwhelming. 

This book, along with others I have highlighted here and will highlight next week, is a call to action by all of us to rethink our reliance on the plastic - especially single-use plastic. While we must recycle what we do use, we need to stop using so much and demand that manufacturers find other ways of packaging products. Plastic Sea provides some suggestions for starting today!

We cannot have enough books on the shelf informing young readers that the time to change is now. Plastic Sea is a worthy addition to that shelf. I do have some quibbles. One is, though the facts conveyed by the authors are consistent with what I've read elsewhere, no attribution appeared either in the text or in the scanty back matter. Two, quite a number of photos were un-captioned or poorly captioned. Three, while there was a list of words to remember, they were not defined, which would've been instructive for young readers. Finally, four, there were no source notes, bibliography or suggestions for further reading, which would've made this a valuable resource for young researchers. 

Non-Fiction Monday - Plastic Ahoy!

Plastic Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by Patricia Newman. Photographs by Annie Crawley. 48 p. Millbrook Press/ Lerner, April 1, 2014. 9781467712835. (Finished copy proved by publicist for review.)

Three grad students spent three weeks on board the ship, New Horizon, participating in the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX) in 2009. They were part of a crew who motored out to a huge area in the Pacific Ocean know as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch or the North Pacific Central Gyre, formed by four oceans and the winds and currents which direct plastic  and other bits of pollution to the area and don't allow it to escape. 

The scientists had many questions that they wanted answered and used the scientific method to start to find answers. The book focuses on three young women who were graduate students and the specific experiments they were performing. Chapters also include information about the rest of the crew and what life is like on board. For instance, it took a week to even get to the gyre. What did the scientists do? The reader learns that organized and tested equipment, dealt with seasickness, bunked with a roommate in rooms so small that "only one could stand on the floor at a time," and worked out on exercise equipment on deck. (8) 

Once they hit the gyre, they were hard at work collecting samples on the surface and below. The crew collected plastic in "130 of their 132 net tows over 1,700 miles of open ocean." (36) While plastic doesn't biodegrade, it does break down into smaller and smaller pieces. Pieces that are ingested by sea life. Pieces that contain poisons. The scientists hope to discover how this affects the animals.

The book is attractively designed. Pages have an hombre background of sea green. They are filled with plenty of crisp, full-color photographs, maps and interesting text boxes and sidebars. A final chapter includes information about what the reader can do to help reduce this problem.

The back-matter includes links to some videos of the SEAPLEX team in action, other websites as well as books for further reading. Source notes, a glossary and index round out the volume.

I've mentioned before on this blog that I love these types of science-in-real-life books. This one belongs right up there with my best-beloved titles. I heap some additional love on it because the scientists are young and female, hopefully encouraging more young women to consider studying science. The text and photographs work together so effectively to hammer home the seriousness of this problem and encourage the reader to rethink habits.

This book will fit in beautifully in several curriculum areas at my school, especially in seventh grade science. Surely a must-purchase item for school and public libraries.

Visit the Nonfiction Monday blog for a round-up of other titles.