Aqua Boy
Ken Wilson-Max
Otter-Barry Books

Islander Aaron lives by the sea with his parents and elder sister, Angel. Mum and Dad are ocean guardians, volunteers performing a vital role in trying to keep the beach clean. His sister is at home in the water as well as on land and loving to plunge into the waves, she calls herself Coral Girl. Aaron would dearly love to do the same but he’s frightened of going under water. When he shares his fear with his Mum, she tells him that it will happen one day, “when you least expect it.” Dad is equally reassuring when Aaron joins him in the boat as they head out to check on the sea creatures.

That night a huge storm blows up and the following morning the beach is littered with rubbish. The ocean guardians set to work clearing it up, Aaron and Angel imagining ways they might ‘clean up the ocean for good.’

All of a sudden, Aaron spots an octopus, stranded, so Dad says, on the sandy shore. Dad entices it with a length of wood. The children watch as gradually the creature wraps itself around the stick and Dad wades out into the sea. Grabbing his goggles, Aaron follows looking right at the octopus, the creature looking directly at him as it slowly releases its hold on the wood

and swims free below the surface.

The boy then puts on his goggles, breathes deeply and immerses himself, watching the movements of the octopus. Once his friend has swum away Aaron stands up and there, fear finally gone, he is really happy and ready to embrace a new way of being an ocean guardian. He learns about the creatures he sees underwater, helps care for them and never stops hoping his octopus friend will return.

This timely, gentle tale of environmental guardianship with Ken Wilson-Max’s vibrant scenes that portray both family love and the vital role ocean guardians play, will one hopes, highlight to young children the importance of caring for marine life and ensuring that they play their part by taking their rubbish home as well as helping to keep beaches clean. A final spread gives some octopus facts and underscores the outcomes of ocean pollution.