Alba and the Ocean Cleanup (edition 2020)

This picture book for children three and up begins, “There was once a small, quiet town that overlooked a brilliant blue ocean.” We then meet Alba, a bright orange reef fish in that water, who is fascinated by all the trash she finds, thinking it must be “treasure.” But she gets stuck inside a plastic bottle. Fortunately the bottle washes up on shore and is discovered by a little girl named Kaia who helps Alba get out of the bottle. But Kaia is dismayed by all the trash in the water, and declares “We’ve got to clean this up.”

Kaia organized the whole town to work together “to clean up the mess they had made.” Bit by bit, the sea began to get safer again for the creatures who lived in it. Kaia then felt it was okay to release Alba, who went back to her reef, “which was becoming busy and bright again.”

A closing double-page spread gives thumbnail descriptions of some of the creatures (“Alba’s ocean friends”) shown in the reef pictures. One additional page provides simple tips on “Taking Care of Our Oceans,” such as “Avoid using plastic products.”

The author, who is also the illustrator, uses stylized art work with bright colors, albeit with the unfortunate choice of printing at least half the text on a dark blue background, making it hard to read.

Evaluation: The rescue by Kaia is extremely unrealistic, as are some of the tips which are not really geared to the very young intended audience, such as “Never pour harmful chemicals down the drain.” Nevertheless, the story may help kids to understand that their actions and choices have consequences they may not have considered, and that it is good to think of others besides themselves. ( )

Beautiful, detailed, interesting pictures.
Heavy adult ocean clean-up message that will be hard for sensitive kids. ( )