Clem and Crab

The endpapers show a beach strewn with plastic before we meet Clem, who loved the beach, the sand, the waves, the grass that grows sideways, and the pools that come and go, and we see her peering into one of those pools. On days she had been watching a crab, as it played hide-and seek among the rocks, but it had disappeared when she was ready to go home. In her bucket were shells, pieces of glass, but also some plastic- and Crab, in a plastic bag. Sadly she returned him to the sea as her big sister had told her to, but on the bus home she found that he had hidden in her rolled-up trouser leg. She made him a home in a plastic bowl, and prepared her collection for Show and Tell. The next day, she went, with Crab, to the aquarium, and they found about the underwater world, conservation, and the problem of plastic in the ocean, and what people can do to help. Crab was the star of Show and Tell, though she had to explain why he wasn’t back in the sea, and she told her class all about the plastic problem, and how we can all help, though the beach was too big for her to clear. At the weekend, Clem and her sister went back to the beach to return Crab to the sea, and they were amazed and pleased to see her classmates busy clearing it of plastic: “I made a difference! We can all make a difference!” When the beach was clean and Crab back in a pool, Clem promised she would always look after it, for Crab and all the sea creatures.
Fiona Lumbers’ illustrations show plenty of detail on the beach, a wonderful aquarium you can walk through, and sturdy little Clem and her diverse classmates and teacher as full of character. It’s a good story, absolutely appropriate for our awareness of responsibility for the planet, and this will go well in the classroom and library.