English / Canada
SOS water
Yayo
(text/illus.)
Vancouver [et al.]: Tradewind Books, 2024. – [50] p.
ISBN 978-1-99059-823-4
(Parallel ed. in French and Spanish from the same publisher)
Friendship | Picture book | Habitat | Plastic | Environmental awareness | Water pollution
Reading age: 4+
White Ravens issue: 2025
When Lalo the sailor befriends little goldfish Rosa, who sits abandoned in her fishbowl on top of some plastic garbage bags, he immediately takes on the task of finding her a better home. However, this is easier said than done. The two new friends travel near and far – from the local park to the peak of a high mountain, then down into the jungle, and even to the icy Arctic, where the polar bears dwell. Yet no place is safe anymore. Hundreds of thousands of empty plastic bottles are polluting planet Earth and posing a serious threat to animals and the environment. Award-winning Colombian-Canadian artist Yayo tells this story in sparse text that leaves plenty of room for readers’ own musings. Drawn partly in a cartoon-like style, the satirical mixed-media illustrations unfold their full power when they show the ubiquity of plastic waste – reaching a climax with an ocean of nothing but plastic bottles. This strikingly illustrated book is an emphatic, urgent plea to fight against pollution that speaks to readers of any age. [CS]