*Peter’s Place by Sally Grindley (1995) is a child’s introduction to an oil spill. It’s beautifully illustrated by Michael Foreman. Peter’s place is a shoreline of wind-torn beaches and ravaged cliff faces. “Guillermots, shags, kittiwakes, eider ducks, and long-tailed ducks screeched and squawked and gossiped to one another while in the turbulent ocean below, seals and otters bobbed and weaved and played and feasted on the sea’s riches.” As you can see, this is gorgeous text. The location is lucious, until a storm causes the wreck of a passing oil tanker. The tanker leaks and a “slick blackness was everywhere.” Sealife suffered and died. Rescuers search for damaged wildlife and scrub the sticky slime covering everything in sight. While much of the cleanup is successful, it’s not complete. “For, not far below the surface, little nooks and crannies, between rocks, under the sand, are ugly black scars that can never be washed away.”
