First, can we take a moment to applaud Charlotte Offsay and her debut book! Congratulations! Thank you, Charlotte, for The Big Beach Cleanup.
The Big Beach Cleanup begins with Cora who is excited for a future sandcastle contest. She’s been planning all her award-winning creations when a sign stops her, her plans, and the “End of Summer Sandcastle Competition”.
“Postponed due to beach conditions.”
Trash. Trash has invaded the beach and we see illustrations, by Katie Rewse, of bottles, bags, six-pack soda rings, cans, straws. All the things we cram in our beach coolers and tend to leave behind or as mom teaches Cora, when trash is dropped into the drains that empty out into the ocean it will wash up back onto shore.
Cora and her mother do their best to clean up what they can, but four hands can only do so much. If the beach is going to be clean by the end of summer they’re going to need some help. This is where connection and community take their part.
Grandpa helps. Now they have six hands. Still, six hands are not enough.
Cora gets an idea and begins to recruit. It doesn’t go well, at first, but Cora does not give up. Soon she has eight hands. Then ten hands. Twelve hands.
“And slowly …more and more and more hands joined together.”
Eventually, with all the hands working together, the sandcastle competition sign changes to “Back on thanks to local activists”. The competition is back on!
The Big Beach Cleanup again, is Charlotte Offsay’s debut book and it portrays her belief that small hands, when working together, do make a big difference. I was gifted an advanced electronic copy and, as I read it to my own children, they loved that Cora wasn’t ignored or told to leave it to the experts. She saw a problem, figured out quickly that she couldn’t handle it on her own, and got help. It took time, but she didn’t give up. Cora reaches her goal - the sandcastle competition is no longer canceled - but she also reaches another without realizing it - she brings the community together, under a common cause that not only helped Cora, but helped every single one of them. Connection and community.
On a homeschool note: I love, love, love that Offsay gave us a little bit of a lesson counting by 2’s! Thanks for that math lesson! Also, the last page is “Autor’s Note” and “Did You Know…?” to provide more facts and what you, your children can do about the trash on the beach now and how to do our part to keep our beaches clean.