Ocean Soup: A Recipe for You, Me, and a Cleaner Sea

The recipe for Ocean Soup, Pincus relays through lighthearted but edifying couplets, is easy: add single-use plastics and trash from overflowing landfills to the sea, and then let it be “simmered by the sun” for “decades of days,” whereupon the five gyres “turn the plastic to specks” and the consequences become limitless. The author emphasizes how humans, the “chefs” of this “murky, confetti-like brew,” caused this proliferation of plastic pollution over generations of bad habits, primarily extensive use of plastics: “heaps of containers and straws,” taking “throwaway bags without pause.” Semple’s colorful digital illustrations follow four children with different skin tones as they learn about Ocean Soup, effectively supplementing Pincus’s smoothly rhythmic narration in this charming call to action. Back matter further addresses the topic and includes an author’s note sharing the book’s beginnings. Ages 7–8. (Mar.)