The Last Straw

December 1, 2020
Cast away after one use, Sippy the plastic straw travels through all the places plastic trash ends up, from a bird's nest to and through a whale's stomach. Matthiessen regularly uses her artistic skills to raise political and environmental awareness. Here, in her first book, one small straw's adventure illustrates the massive problem of plastic trash. Straws can't be recycled, but being small and light, they can travel far. Along his way, Sippy meets a raccoon wearing a six-pack ring around his neck, an owl entangled by a balloon's string, a hermit crab with a bottle-top shell, plastic-bag-eating turtles, and much more. With pen and ink, watercolor, and application of digital effects, the artist has created a distressing, plastic-filled world that is, sadly, not as far from reality as the story of the talking straw. This is a sobering presentation for the intended readers and listeners, and the ending, though hopeful, is not happy (although the clever endpapers suggest something will be done). Sippy's tale is important, but it's told in rhyming couplets set in a plodding iambic heptameter marked by awkward word choices and emphases that will require practice before reading aloud. Caregivers who want to share the story might do better just talking through the pictures and the final "What Can You and Your Family Do" spread. A laudable effort expressed in subpar verse. (Picture book. 5-8)

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