Llyod-Davies’s latest literary efforts were born, by his own admission, from seeing a photograph. It showed a beach overrun and devastated by rubbish. “I read that there were around forty million pieces of plastic washed up on the shore of this paradise island, until then pristine, in the South Pacific, one of Britain’s Pitcairn Islands. I knew this would have an effect on children: the damage to a beautiful island, the devastation of precious marine life and the potential for Katie, a heroine not much older than they are, to put things right.”
Katie is the very young protagonist of Nick Llyod-Davies’s adventures: “In my Glowstone Adventure series, Katie, aged 12, has a magic stone that any animal in the world can call upon if it is in trouble. In Katie Helps a Turtle with Tummy Ache, a green turtle called Harry asks for help because he has a tummy ache caused by swallowing plastic from the ocean. His companion Basil, a crown-of-thorns starfish, is suffering too.”
According to the writer, children receive this message immediately and, we would say, without preconceptions. “Children understand these problems in an absolutely clear way,” says Lloyd. “For them, plastic pollution is wrong and the damage it causes is simply wrong. There are no grey areas: the chatter, the tinkering at the edges by politicians, the things that make Greta Thunberg furious.”
As in any children’s story worthy of the name, Katie’s stories as told by Lloyd also have a happy ending, or rather a window of hope opened onto the future. “Fortunately Katie has a magic glowstone that frees Harry and Basil from their tummy ache and persuades the leaders of the world’s economic superpowers to clean up the beach themselves, faced with the prospect of everything being shipped to their private homes! I think Greta would approve...”
It is the writer, however, who acknowledges that magic stones may no longer be enough to save our planet (also because, we would add, children can be more practical than we think). “We have to give them real hope,” confesses Llyod, “because there is no magic glowstone. My next book will focus on an even bigger challenge: the climate emergency. Katie has to try to explain climate change to a group of worried seals, walruses and polar bears. Imagine the sadness, the anger, if the animals knew it was down to us. Maybe they do know, and they are really angry.”
It is precisely in the name of this practicality that the proceeds from Nick Lloyd-Davies’s book will be donated to the British charity WDC.
Nick Llyod-Davies
Katie helps a turtle with Tummy Ache
© thegreenmag.co.uk 2023
