Lobstah Gahden: Speak out against pollution with a wicked awesome Boston accent!

by Alli Brydon, EG Keller

Overview

With pictures from the illustrator behind Last Week Tonight's A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, this delightfully punny story about ocean life, conservation, and cooperation is perfect for sparking conversations in the classroom and at home.

Walt is a proud lobstah whose greatest dream is winning the annual Swell Gahdens contest. But year after year that honor always goes to his chowdah-head neighbor Milton. One day, when heaps of gahbage show up in their yahds, the rival lobstahs must join forces to save their beloved gahdens from the trash floating down from above.

Our oceans are beautiful, colorful, diverse ecosystems that are home to over a million species of underwater creatures. Unfortunately, humans are putting our friends under the sea at risk by polluting Earth's oceans daily. Lobstah Gahden will help kids understand the importance of conservation, and additional backmatter about sea life and pollution will give readers practical ways they can help preserve our oceans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728232461
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	04/06/2021
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	599,698
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD470L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Alli Brydon is a children's book author and lifelong New Yorker who moved to the south of England with her family in 2018. Her favorite place is the beach, but the mountains constantly call to her. Alli has the sense of humor of a 7-year-old. And she will never ever kill a spider. Her wicked ah-some Boston-themed picture book Lobstah Gahden published in April 2021 with Sourcebooks eXplore, and she has books forthcoming with Amazon/Two Lions, Disney, Macmillan, and National Geographic Kids.

GERALD KELLEY (aka EG KELLER) is the illustrator of the New York Times #1 bestseller, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Presents A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, and the picture book His Royal Dogness, Guy the Beagle: The Rebarkable True Story of Meghan Markle’s Rescue Dog. As Gerald Kelley, he illustrated documentarian Ken Burns’ New York Times bestselling book, Grover Cleveland, Again!, and wrote and illustrated the picture book, Please Please the Bees, which won the 2017 Frances and Wesley Bock Book Award for Children’s Literature and was read aloud for Storyline Online by Rashida Jones. Keller lives in Colorado with his husband.

Editorial Reviews

"[Such] a fun book with a bigger purpose... What a great way to teach kids about pollution and littering and how they can help." — Youth Services Book Review

"Puns galore plus Boston accents give this playful book plenty of character along with its valuable message about pollution." — Melissa Taylor, Imagination Soup

"Brydon and Keller have climbed over troubled waters to deliver a comical and educational story... A good read-aloud conservation story sure to entertain students dipping their toes into aquatic environmentalism.

" — School Library Journal

From the Publisher

05/01/2021

PreS-Gr 1—Walter is a lobster with a dream to win the undersea "Swell Gahdens Contest." Unfortunately, his neighbor and rival Milton always wins. One day when trash starts raining on their gardens Milton and Walter must come together to figure out who is polluting the ocean and put a stop to it. Brydon and Keller have created a cracking crustaceous story that is just begging to teach students the dangers of pollution. The text is large and very visible on each page, with the vocabulary sticking to mostly simple words at a kindergarten level. The spelling of some words is not canon, but written to help readers sound out and speak in a charming regional dialect. This helps non-Bostonians with the accent greatly, although other local jokes may not land. Keller's illustrations blend with the text perfectly, creating an earnest, cartoony backdrop for Walter and Milton's arguments. Walter's facial expressions are particularly hilarious and help tell the tale of problems brewing under the sea. Together, Brydon and Keller have climbed over troubled waters to deliver a comical and educational story about two Boston lobsters, their corral gardens, and the dangers of pollution. VERDICT A good read-aloud conservation story sure to entertain students dipping their toes into aquatic environmentalism.—Margaret Kennelly, Media Specialist, Indian Head Elem. Sch., MD

School Library Journal

2021-05-05
When garbage lands in their potentially award-winning “gahdens,” two lobsters team up to teach the polluters a lesson.

Walter, a “proud lobstah,” tends a beautiful underwater “gahden.” He works all year long toward his dream of winning the annual “Swell Gahdens” contest, which neighbor Milton always wins. As the contest approaches, Walter finds a discarded tire in his garden, and he suspects Milton of sabotage. But Milton has found garbage in his own garden, and he thinks Walter is to blame. As towering piles of garbage overtake both gardens, Walter and Milton decide to head to the surface to see what’s going on. They discover humans tossing garbage into the ocean and make a plan to return the favor. While some readers may find the playful use of the Boston accent humorous, it is difficult to imagine working-class Bostonians not feeling like the butt of a joke. The use of the accent is inconsistent in the text (e.g., “underwater gahdening trends”), making it not only nonsensical, but difficult to read aloud. The poorly executed accent gimmick also detracts from the already-weak message about ocean conservation; the image of a few irresponsible boaters tossing trash overboard absolves the rest of us from responsibility for inadvertent pollution. The brightly colored, expressive illustrations at least make the read tolerable.

A mediocre concept poorly executed. (notes, glossary, references) (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews