When a thunderous storm in 1992 threw a cargo container filled with bathtub toys overboard into the Pacific Ocean, no one expected the 29,000 plastic toys would help scientists prove that the ocean currents are connected. However, the toys are still popping up today on beaches near and far—some more than 17,000 miles away from the accident at sea. This story gives a fictionalized account of the happening, telling the tale of a flock of rubber ducks as they traveled the globe’s waterways.
As the cargo ship sailed on that stormy night, the bathtub toys escaped their drowned container, popping up one by one on the ocean’s surface. Left bobbing along the globe’s waterways, the little quackers eventually came to rest on shores ranging from Alaska to Seattle to Fiji, Tonga, and Tahiti. Over the years, some of the toys journeyed through the Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea, the Arctic Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean, landing in the hands of many around the world, including reporters and a little boy named John. The plastic toys’ tale is accompanied by maps charting their travel pattern, a glossary, and a summary of the highly publicized event.
About the Author/Illustrator
Janeen Mason is an artist and author whose colorful work has appeared in zoos and museums nationwide. She is a frequent speaker at schools across the country and is a passionate arts advocate in her home state of Florida. Mason served as a member of the Florida Council on Arts and Culture as well as a member of Citizens for Florida Arts. Her accolades include a Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award, the U.S. Maritime Literature Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, and the National Award for Excellence in Communities.
Mason is also the author and illustrator of Pelican’s Gift of the Magpie, Ocean Commotion: Sea Turtles, and Ocean Commotion: Life on the Reef and illustrator of Pelican’s Fish Facts; Kissimmee Pete and the Hurricane; Kissimmee Pete, Cracker Cow Hunter; The Pirate, Pink; Pirate Pink and Treasures of the Reef; and The World’s Greatest Explorer. She lives and works near the ocean that she loves in Stuart, Florida.
OCEAN COMMOTION
Caught in the Currents
Written and Illustrated by Janeen Mason
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Science & Nature / Earth Sciences / Water (Oceans, Lakes, etc.)
32 pp. 8 1/2 x 11
15 color illus. Glossary
ISBN: 9781455624904 pb