Question about Roxie

We have been reading your really good book Roxie and the Hooligans. We have some questions for you about the book, and we decided to choose just one to send today. Why did you choose to dump trash in the ocean? It can be bad for animals to put trash in the ocean. For example, a straw could go in a sea turtle’s nose and get stuck in there for hours or plastic loops like for Gatorade can get stuck around their necks and kill them. Instead of dumping trash in the ocean, you should pick up the trash. We would love to hear your reasoning for including trash-dumping in your book. Thank you so much for writing it!

Best,
Ms. Mack’s Class

You are absolutely right!   I can remember a long time ago when I heard that barges were dumping garbage in the ocean  I couldn’t quite believe it.  Then I was told that it was food garbage, and that it disintegrated in the water, so was not harmful in a great big ocean.  But trash DOES go into the water along with food garbage, and I’m afraid I just forgot about all that when I wrote the story, concentrating instead on what would happen to Roxie next.  Thank you and your class for reminding us all about pollution.  For many years now I have been carefully separating  my food garbage from other trash, and I wish I could have put in  a plug for protecting our oceans when I wrote that book.