Little Turtle and the Sea
Publisher: Little Tiger
This beautiful picture book starts right at the beginning of Little Turtle’s life as she pushes out of her egg and pulls herself across the beach to the sea. We follow her life story through the stunningly illustrated blues and greens of the ocean.
Little Turtle is a delightful character with the cutest little smile and a face full of expression as she happily swims around the ocean making friends wherever she goes. Each year her love for the ocean grows as she travels across it to lay her own eggs and have her own children; until one heartbreaking day, the ocean starts to change. Little Turtle comes face to face with her first plastic bag - she tries to make friends with it but is met with eerie silence. From there things get worse and worse until she’s caught in a fisherman’s discarded net. But the story ends on a hopeful note as Little Turtle is saved by conservationists .
The picture book is a beautiful and hopeful introduction to young children about the threat of plastic to marine life and the natural world under the sea. Of course the subject matter is upsetting for everyone, but this book focuses on what we can do and reiterates that it’s not too late to sort this problem out. After the story there are four pages of helpful information on the issue of ocean pollution, what can be done to reverse it and how all of us can help.