Where’s the Starfish?

A gigantic whale fills the first double page spread of this wordless picturebook, turn the page to find a busy ocean scene with a myriad of colourful sea creatures happily living together. Turn again and Where’s Wally? style young readers are invited to spot the starfish, jellyfish and clownfish in the under the ocean pictures. However, gradually changes become apparent in the undersea environment as rubbish begins to fill the ocean bed. Soon there is less space for the fish who begin to disappear until only the starfish, clownfish and jellyfish plus a very large and angry whale are visible. What can be done? Why, shove the rubbish back on land of course! This is exactly what the whale starts to do, enabling the ocean to become a thriving community of fish once more rather than a large rubbish bin.

Following the great success of Where’s the Elephant? with its message about deforestation and its effect on animal life, Barroux has used the same device to offer a powerful pictorial message about the importance of safeguarding our oceans and not allowing them to become depositories of our rubbish. A footnote from the author illustrator explains his motivation.