As I begin to write this feature, I am reminded of the story of the Midas Touch. King Midas wished that everything he touched would turn to gold — a seemingly perfect gift that quickly revealed itself as a curse: his food turned to gold, his water turned to gold, and eventually, so did his daughter! The very thing that made the wish so powerful is precisely what made it devastating. There was no off switch.

Midas captures the irony at the heart of plastic: an invention that gave birth to unimaginable possibilities, but also carried with it, catastrophe. Plastic doesn’t rot, rust, dissolve or yield. That’s why it revolutionised medicine, food safety and manufacturing. But that same indestructibility means every piece ever made still exists somewhere — in a landfill, in the ocean, or worse still, in the body of a seabird. 

Indian children’s literature explores this conundrum in various ways — some books choose to hit the nail on the head through fact, others lure readers through emotionally-charged stories, while some trust that the tumultuous relationship with plastic can only be explored through art and play.

Hitting the Nail on the Head

Meghaa Gupta’s Unearthed: An Environmental History of Independent India offers a brief history of how we have managed waste in India over the last century. The sub-section on ​‘plastic problems’ shines a light on the plastic industry, informing readers that the average Indian uses about 11kgs of plastic in a year and other such interesting trivia. You also get to meet the Plastic Man of India. Bijal Vachharajani’s So You Want to Know About the Environment, on the other hand, pushes readers to be reflective through experiential actions. She sets them onto little tasks like calculating India’s garbage by listing out what is in their own garbage bins, and then making them think about the plastic pen they are writing their calculations with and its impact on the planet. Both these books can be extensively used in geography, history and EVS classes. 

Neal Layton​’s A Planet Full of Plastic zooms in on plastic, highlighting where it comes from and how it has transformed our lives for the better, but it also educates young readers on the long-lasting impact of plastic, especially when used irresponsibly. 

Filled with fascinating facts and information, these books ensure they leave a deep impact on readers by bringing the Midas dilemma home and finding positive and productive ways around this cursed wish we all benefit from. 

Emotional Entanglement

Non-fiction aside, there’s no better way to grab a reader’s attention than by engulfing them in character-driven plots and exciting storylines that put them in the driver’s seat for action. Inspired by a true story, Nandita da Cunha and Priya Kuriyan​’s Miracle on Kachhua Beach does just that. On the quest to collect bottle caps to win a competition, young Ori ends up creating a miracle by involving the neighbourhood to clean up the beach of all its plastic waste. Chandini Chhabra and Asha Susan Alex​’s The Big Beach Clean Upand Anna D and Shreya Sen​’s What Did Priya Eat?also tread similar storylines involving plastic, that lay context, state a problem, action a solution and end with celebratory change, leaving children happy, chuffed and looking forward to doing their bit.

Miranda Paul and Elizabeth Zunon​’s One Plastic Bag narrates the powerful true story of how one woman in Africa began a movement to recycle the plastic bags that were polluting her community. Meanwhile, Hannah Peck and Sarah Roberts’ Somebody Swallowed Stanley personifies a plastic bag — Stanley — into a character that’s travelling across the ocean, gripping the reader with its tenacious journey as it gets swallowed by various creatures only to be finally found by a human who puts it to better use.

Another book that hooks you with its rhyme, mesmerises you with its illustrations and enfolds you in its story is Niveditha Subramaniam and Aindri C​’s Ammu’s Bottle Boat. When little Ammu sets her plastic bottle boat to bob from stream to sea, she doesn’t realise what danger she has set adrift. Filled with a wise acceptance of life’s bittersweet truths, the book still manages to end brightly with hope and inspires readers to do better. 

On the other end of the spectrum is Devashish Makhija and Priya Kuriyan​’s Go Go Flamingo, a very dark satire about flamingos who arrive south in search of food and water only to find interesting looking objects that attract them. Draping themselves in spools of tape, wires, shoes, syringes, they dance in a confused trance. Each hilarious, almost fantastical page, with lyrical rhyme and zany illustrations, carries a deeply uncomfortable truth that leaves the reader guilty not only for what we’ve done to the planet but also for loving the crazy flamingos who look fun and funky all styled up in garbage! I’m not sure whether six-year-olds, for whom the book is targeted, should be subjected to such satire, but it definitely leaves one thinking and could work brilliantly for slightly older readers. 

For those looking at titles for young children, Daily Dump’s gorgeously illustrated Ouch and Moo books are filled with wonderfully interactive questions that make room for much thinking and conversations. 

Art Attack!

Play and imagination are an essential part of a child’s world and have the potential to remind us to look in an entirely different way and from a completely new perspective. That’s exactly what Aparna Kapur and Bijal Vachharajani​’s Art is Everywhere – Here, There and in Trash does. It is a fun visual play on trash with silly little poems that encourage readers to see the menace of plastic in a new light. 

Anais Beaulieu’s A Stitch Out of Time, meanwhile, explores the mindless way in which we throw away plastic bags, by embroidering endangered plants on those very bags! The slow organic process of plant growth, accompanied by the contemplative act of embroidering creates a stark contrast when single-use plastic bags signifying unthinking consumption are used as the medium to carry this irony. 

Plastic in children’s literature isn’t just a marvellous material, instead it is a complicated companion of modern living. In inviting young readers to notice plastic in a variety of ways, literature prods them to see the larger story hidden within it — a story of slowing down and rethinking selfish conveniences that begin with using just another single-use plastic bag.

Bibliography

1. Unearthed: An Environmental History of Independent India (Penguin)
2. So You Want to Know About the Environment (Rupa/​Red Turtle)
3. A Planet Full of Plastic: And how You Can Help (Wren & Rook)
4. Miracle on Kachhua Beach (Kalpavriksh)
5. The Big Beach Clean Up (Pratham Books)
6. What Did Priya Eat? (Pratham Books)
7. One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia (Lerner Publishing Group)
8. Somebody Swallowed Stanley: An Ocean Plastic Story (Scholastic)
9. Ammu’s Bottle Boat (Tulika)
10. Go Go Flamingo (Tulika)
11. The Red Ouch & Moo Book; The Yellow Ouch & Moo Book (Daily Dump)
12. Art is Everywhere – Here, There and in Trash (Pratham Books)
13. A Stitch Out of Time (Tara Books)
14. Plasto (Pratham Books)
15. Trash! On Ragpicker Children and Recycling (Tara Books)

Image: Less Plastic Thailand/​ Storyweaver

About the Author

Timira Gupta is an arts-based therapist, educator and children’s author. She has been working in the field of education for the past 17 years, designing arts-based curriculum and working with teachers. She currently co-designs the Artful Teacher Workshop Programme and is pursuing her PhD in teacher education. She can be reached at TeachersAsArtistsCollective@​gmail.​com.