The Last Plastic Straw: A Plastic Problem and Finding Ways to Fix It

by Dee Romito, Ziyue Chen (Illustrator)

Overview

Learn how and why a useful, 5000-year-old invention has become a threat to our planet—and what you can do about it—in this history of the simple straw.

From reeds used by ancient Sumerians to bendy straws in World War II hospitals, people have changed the straw to fit their needs for 5000 years. Today however, this useful tool is contributing to the plastic problem polluting our oceans. Once again, the simple straw needs a reinvention.

With bright illustrations and well-researched text, children can read about the inventors behind the straw’s technological advancements, including primary sources like patents, as well as how disposable plastic harms the environment. See the newest solutions, from plastic straw alternatives to activism by real kids like Milo Cress who started the Be Straw Free campaign when he was 11 years old.

Learn about what kids can do to reduce plastic waste. The backmatter includes more information on the movement to stop plastic waste, action items kids can do, a bibliography, and additional resources on plastic pollution.

Books for a Better Earth are designed to inspire children to become active, knowledgeable participants in caring for the planet they live on.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823458783
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	07/02/2024
Series:	Books for a Better Earth
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	418,692
Product dimensions:	8.54(w) x 11.01(h) x 0.12(d)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Dee Romito is an author of books for young readers from picture books to middle grade. Her middle grade books include The BFF Bucket List, No Place Like Home, Postcards from Venice, and co-authored Best.Night.Ever. Her debut picture book, Pies from Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott received a starred review.

She is a deaf Illustrator based in Singapore and represented by MB Artists. She loves drawingand visualising stories through her personal experience. Her life goal has been to have anemotional connection with those who view her work. Her most recent picture books are Dancing With Daddy by Anitra R. Schulte and How Women Won the Vote: Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Their Big Idea by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. When she’s not illustrating, she enjoys swimming, cooking and spending time with her loved ones.

Editorial Reviews

★ "A fascinating history of straws morphs into a call to action."—The Horn Book, Starred Review

"This installment of the Books for a Better Earth series collection takes aim at the plastic straw but draws kids in with intriguing historical facts and a sense of generosity as opposed to lectures or condescension. . . . A valuable starting point for young environmentalists."—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"[A] fascinating and accessible picture book. . . ."—Publishers Weekly

"An important topic gets a very appealing treatment."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

04/03/2023

A breezy overview of drinking straw history builds to a conservation-minded message about the need to reduce single-use plastics in this fascinating and accessible picture book, part of the new Books for a Better Earth series. Opening, Romito frames straws as tools responding to specific problems, beginning with reed drinking straws in ancient Sumer and tracing the development of paper and bendy iterations. The introduction of plastic varieties provides a segue to the way these objects—now ubiquitous “forever” trash—have generated a new problem. Romito offers a ready solution, pointing to the real-world activism of the child behind the “Be Straw Free” campaign while acknowledging situations in which plastic may be necessary. Chen’s digital renderings of people of varying skin tones using straws across time have an informative, static quality that emphasizes the historical dimensions of their subject; a single real-life photo of microplastic reinforces the need for action. An author’s note concludes. Ages 6–9. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

2022-10-12
Sometimes you just have to suck it up.

If you imagine drinking straws are a modern innovation, think again. This timely exploration of an environmental problem informs readers about the long history of the slender tube many beverage drinkers take for granted. Straws actually date back more than five millennia to ancient Sumer. When Sumerians needed to find a way to filter out thick substances from their home-brewed beverages, they ingeniously used thin, hollow reeds, enabling them to imbibe only liquids. Over the centuries, other civilizations developed similar drinking tubes made from various plants and other items, including straw, from which the implement we now use derived its name. In the late 19th century in Washington, D.C., Marvin Stone invented and patented the paper straw. In the late 1930s, another American, Joseph Friedman, developed and patented the “bendy straw,” which was sold after World War II ended. In the 1950s, straws began to be manufactured from plastic; by the following decade, they were ubiquitous, ultimately contributing to environmental disaster. In direct, well-written prose, the author makes starkly clear how “single-use plastics,” such as straws, water bottles, and plastic bags, harm the Earth, oceans, and sea creatures and offers easy, sensible, responsible solutions that everyone can adopt to help the planet while not having to abandon straws entirely. The bold digital illustrations are eye-catching and inventive and maintain high reader interest. Racial diversity is depicted throughout. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An important topic gets a very appealing treatment. (author’s note, sources, index) (Informational picture book. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews