SOS WATER

A picture-book parable on environmental stewardship.

“Usually I don’t talk to strangers on the street,” says Lalo, a sailor. But our hero makes an exception upon encountering a talking goldfish in a fishbowl atop a pile of trash. Befitting her bright red color, her name is Rosa, and she longs for “a better life.” To fulfill this wish, Lalo takes Rosa on a global journey, but everywhere they go—a pond, a mountaintop, the Arctic, the jungle, the desert, the River Seine, the beach—they find empty, plastic water bottles, symbolic of broader environmental degradation. “We wondered where all of them came from,” says Lalo on a climactic spread showing the pair in a rowboat on a body of water choked by bottles. The following wordless spread depicts them watching aghast as people lug water bottles from a store; then they join not people but several anthropomorphic animals in cleaning up the ubiquitous litter. In their efforts, they encounter a garden gnome who finally gives Rosa a new home on his fantastically pristine property, and Lalo closes the story with a refreshing glass of tap water. (Fine-print warnings tell readers not to free goldfish in waterways and to ensure tap water’s potability.) Yayo blends attractive visuals, a sense of whimsy, and sound lessons on environmentalism. Human characters have skin the white of the page.

A fanciful tale with practical guidance for protecting our planet.