Bella Saves the Beach by Nancy Stewart and Illustrated by Samantha Bell. Ages 4 – 8. 24 pages. Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.  Feb 2013. ISBN-13: 978-1616333713 Fiction. $11.95.  Paperback.

Summary:

Bella loves living at the beach.  She becomes increasingly upset about all the trash on the beach.  She tries to find others to help her, but no one is either available or interested.  Bella realizes that if she wants the beach cleaned up, then she is going to be the one to do it.  She starts by herself picking up trash and putting it into bins.  Then she makes signs telling people that they need to put trash in the trash can.  When her friend Britt comes back from vacation she enlists the help of a lot of people from her community.  Working together, they are able to clean up her beach.

The story is followed by tips about cleaning up the beach.  It ends with interesting facts about animals and things found at the beach.

Our Experience Reading this Book:

I enjoyed reading this book to my son.  I appreciate how it is one girl wanting to make a difference and even though no one is there to help her in the beginning, she doesn’t quit.  I love that Bella has the motivation and initiative to begin cleaning up the beach herself.  She is a great character and I hope is able to inspire all of the children who read this book.

The illustrations are beautiful.  They’re done in watercolor.  They are done in a cartoon-yet-realistic style that makes this story accessible to the very young but are richly done.  The art in this book does an excellent job of complimenting the text of this story.

My son loved this book.  He had lots of questions about why there was trash on the beach and later on I was pleasantly surprised to find him picking up his toys pretending that  he was picking up trash off the beach.  (Unfortunately, this was a one time pretend play.  I could have gotten used to him picking up his toys without having to ask him.)

I will happily read this book to my son again and again.  I hope the values of Bella osmose into him.  It’s a lovely book and any child will find it inspiring that they can make a difference when they see a problem.

I was inspired to look at different ways we could help.  Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, we’re never too far from a beach and I was wondering how we could help.  Below you’ll find a list of resources if you’re interested in volunteering in a beach clean up in your area.

Author Website:

• Nancy Stewart:  http://www.nancystewartbooks.com/
• Samantha Bell:  http://www.samantha-bell.com/

Here Other Reviews of this book on the Blog Tour:

http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2013/04/01/pump-up-your-book-presents-bella-saves-the-beach-virtual-book-publicity-tour/

Resources:

• Coastal Clean Up Day in California:  http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/ccd/ccd.html
  
• How to Volunteer to Clean Up the Beach:  http://www.healthebay.org/get-involved/volunteer/cleanups
• http://www.cleanbeachescoalition.org/why-do-a-beach-cleanup.html
• http://simplesavvy.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/how-to-clean-up-a-beach/
• http://www.signuptocleanup.org/ (Find a Beach Near You to Help!)
• http://www.saveourshores.org/

Where Obtained:   I received a review copy from the publisher.  No other compensation was received.  The opinions expressed here are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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