Rocket says clean up!

K-Gr 2--Rocket is back and this time she is off on an adventure to visit her grammy and grampy at their island home! Rocket, a Black girl with curly, natural hair, has a lot of plans about what she is going to do on her vacation--but when she encounters a baby sea turtle tangled in plastic on the beach, everything changes. After she brings the turtle to Grampy, who runs an animal sanctuary, he shows Rocket all of the ways plastics are harming the islands. This reality makes Rocket sad while galvanizing her to action. The next day Rocket begins telling everyone on the beach about the dangers of plastic waste, and by the end of the day she has united all the beachgoers into a cleanup crew. They follow up all the hard work with a celebration where the little turtle that started it all is released back into the wild. VERDICT Ideal for science-inclined readers and budding environmentalists, this book includes a brief section on how readers can take steps to help "Clean Up"! A first purchase.--Jessica Caron, Bancroft Sch., MA

Rocket is back with an environmentally friendly message. Series predecessor Rocket Says Look Up! (2019) encouraged readers to fix their imaginations on the stars. This sequel helps them to focus more terrestrially, on ocean pollution. With cool blues and warm and sandy tans, Adeola's cheery illustrations offer a brightly hued contrast to the previous book. Rocket is a brown-skinned girl with cornrows billowing into two perfectly coiffed afro puffs. She, her mother, and her brother, Jamal, are visiting the children's grandparents' animal sanctuary, nestled on an undisclosed tropical island. As they build sand castles and surf the waves with their grandchildren, Grammy and Grampy offer lessons about interacting with wild animals and the looming threat of pollution on island shores. The fun is instantly usurped when a baby turtle washes ashore tangled in plastic. As Rocket learns just how bad the pollution problem is, she immediately vows to take action. Quick-witted Rocket sets out the very next day to educate beachgoers, and in no time, Rocket has a cleanup crew compiling a mass of trash. With creativity and community partnership, Rocket and her newfound friends find an artful purpose for the accumulated waste. Rocket's whole family presents black, and the beachgoers are diverse. Included in the backmatter are resources to support and empower young readers. Rocket's fans will enjoy this can-do kid's return. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.