"At least that was the plan. Far out to sea,
the ship was caught in a fierce storm.
A giant wave swept our container
overboard, and it began to sink."
As a result of this event in 1992, 28,000 rubber duckies were washed overboard. Their voyage began in Hong Kong and was meant to be delivered to a shipyard in Seattle. Needless to say, that cargo container did not reach its destination. Nevertheless, in the years that have followed many of those tiny yellow toys have made their way to a wide variety of places.
The duck telling its story here was finally picked up from flotsam on a trash-filled beach far away, and after many adventures.
"I floated for thousands of miles,
until one day I finally reached
land. Though I had never seen or
been to this place before, it felt
familiar. Why? The beach was
covered in trash, the same kind
of trash I'd seen in oceans all over
the world. Plastic, it seemed was
everywhere."
This book differs from other books I have seen about the same event. This rubber duck shares its many observations concerning waste plastic and how it is impacting the animals of the oceans, and the growth of garbage patches on the world's waters. It watches a whale swallow a plastic bag, a turtle get tangled up in fishing net, and passes by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Mixed media images fill the book's pages with colorful scenes the depict the toy's journey. While carefully-chosen text tells its story, the author inserts further important facts in a much smaller font on select pages. Constantly changing perspectives allow readers the chance to see the destruction in the world's waters as they follow the journey made and the observations recorded here.
"We saw fish of every size, shape, and color.
We saw a giant jellyfish and many other
creatures. And we spotted something
completely out of place in the ocean -
a plastic bag.
Plastic bags are "single-use" plastic which means
they are used for a very short time before being
thrown away."
These small additional notes are placed strategically within the text to show readers that the earth's waters are in big trouble. The final scene in the book shows the beach where the rubber duckie washed ashore. It is being cleaned up by a large group of volunteers who will make sure that what is useable will be recycled. The man who finds the toy takes it home for his son, who uses it as it was meant to be used - happily during his next bath!
Follow up material is divided into four sections: LOST AT SEA, OCEAN CURRENTS, PLASTIC FACTS, and HOW YOU CAN HELP. Interesting and informative for all readers.
Other versions of this event that would be useful to share together with this newest one are Eve Bunting's Ducky (2004) and Eric Carle's 10 Little Rubber Ducks (2005). Both are still in print.
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