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

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.)