MAYA MAKES WAVES

A Brazilian professional surfer recalls challenges overcome in her youth and expresses strong environmental concerns.

Depicted in Kaulitzki’s nautical-themed illustrations as a figure of ambiguous age with light brown skin and evocatively flowing hair, Gabeira dives into her story as she dives visually over and under the waves—writing rapturously in third person about how neither asthma nor bullies kept her from catching waves or exploring and delighting in the wonders of the bright “rainforest of the sea.” After swimming with whales and sea turtles, she encounters a great white shark trailing fragments of fishing net who warns her of the dangers of overfishing and plastic pollution. “Life here is disappearing fast,” he tells her. “Please be our voice.” And so in response she returns to the shore to speak to small groups, to join sign-wielding marchers, and overall to deliver a message: “The ocean is in danger, and we must protect it. The time to act is now!” In more personal language, she closes with a restatement of that message, with leads to ocean conservation organizations with which she works. Figures in her audiences are racially diverse but uniformly serious in their cause.

A strong addition to the chorus of voices demanding action.