Consider the Octopus
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
When chance, or fate, throws two twelve-year-olds together on board a scientific research ship at the edge of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it’s not all smooth sailing!
Jeremy “JB” Barnes is looking forward to spending the summer before seventh grade hanging on the beach. But his mother, a scientist, has called for him to join her aboard a research ship where, instead, he’ll spend his summer seasick and bored as he stares out at the endless plastic, microbeads, and other floating debris, both visible and not, that make up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Miles and miles away, twelve-year-old Sidney Miller is trying to come up with an alternate activity worthy of convincing her overprotective parents that she can skip summer camp.
When Jeremy is asked to find the contact information for a list of important international scientists and invite them to attend a last-minute Emergency Global Summit, he's excited to have a chance to actually do something that matters to the mission. How could he know that the Sidney Miller he messages is not the famous marine biologist he has been tasked with contacting, but rather a girl making podcasts from her bedroom—let alone that she would want to sneak aboard the ship?
Nora Raleigh Baskin and Gae Polisner's Consider the Octopus is a comedy of errors, mistaken identity, and synchronicity. Above all, it is a heartfelt story about friendship and an empowering call to environmental protection, especially to our young people who are already stepping up to help save our oceans and our Earth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Faith in coincidence buoys this optimistic, seafaring comedy of errors, told from two cued-white 12-year-olds' alternating perspectives. Jeremy "JB" Barnes is the seasickness-prone son of a lead scientist aboard Oceania II, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration vessel on a mission to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Meanwhile, ocean-obsessed Sidney Miller is desperately trying to avoid going to summer camp. When Jeremy is tasked with inviting scientists to attend an impromptu publicity campaign, he mistakenly invites Sidney, who, with assistance from her Jewish nana (a believer in synchronicity and the philosophy of tikkun olam, or "repairing the world"), conspires to board the ship. Rather than admit his error, Jeremy sneaks Sidney in under the name of a no-show student. Mistaken identity and slapstick comedy mingle with grim facts about microplastics and marine debris, culminating in the duo's attempt to lure a world-famous environmental reporter to the campaign to raise global awareness for the cleanup effort. In their latest collaboration, Baskin and Polisner's (Seven Clues to Home) upbeat eco-adventure combines fiction with real-world issues and affirms that kids can bring about change. Ages 8–12. Agents: (for Baskin) Katelyn Detweiler, Jill Grinberg Literary; (for Polisner) Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.
