“No Time to Waste” is the second book in Carolyn Armstrong’s middle grade series, “Eco Warriors.” 

In case you haven’t read the first book, eleven-year-old twins, Sydney and Sierra have a dream life. Their mother is a nature photographer and they, together with their father, travel the world with her. Their lives are full of adventure and a little bit of danger, especially for Sydney, the more impulsive of the twins.

In this second book, Sydney and her family are in California, where her mom is photographing the sea kelp beds and documenting the threats to them. 

Sydney, who developed the ability to communicate with animals in book one, is on the hunt for a keystone species animal who might tell her what her next task is. Along the way the twins learn about plastic pollution and its effects up and down the food chain.

Armstrong does a great job educating readers about the problem, both its source (plastic that never disappears) and its scope (the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), an area twice the size of Texas, is one of five such patches throughout the oceans). 

Readers also learn about keystone species (in this book the otters are one such species), nurdles (tiny pellets of plastic which are the raw material everything plastic is made from — and a term I hadn’t heard), and some efforts to combat plastic pollution.

Identifying the problem is always the first step when looking for a solution, and this is where Armstrong’s whole series really shines.

The author also does a good job showing how young readers can do their part by changing their own behavior. For example, while we can’t all help rescue an otter who is trapped by a plastic ring, like Sydney does in the story, we can always choose aluminum cans over plastic bottles, resist using plastic bags and styrofoam, and encourage our parents to plant a pollinator garden instead of a lawn that requires fertilizer and weed killer.

I learned a ton from this story, even though I consider myself pretty well informed about environmental issues. For example, while I knew about the garbage patch, I did not know that there are, not one, but five of these monstrosities. I also learned that the garbage in these patches is not floating on the surface but instead is between 600 and 2,000 feet below the surface, making it much harder to remove. 

Bottom line, I did not appreciate just how complex the problem of plastic pollution was before I read “No Time To Waste.”

Armstrong introduces a bit of optimism by introducing the twins to a ship that can scoop, sift and skim garbage out of the ocean. This, in turn, inspires the girls to invent their own garbage collection device. Theirs focuses on collecting, not at the surface and not on the sea floor, but the vast area in between. 

The best part about this section is that the reader gets to watch as they brainstorm, make mistakes, brainstorm some more and even end up with a prototype. It’s a model young readers can follow.

The reader also benefits from Sierra and Sydney’s parents, who often want to review what the girls have learned, whether it has to do with sea urchins or plastic pollution. This gives readers another chance to consolidate their own learning in an organic way as part of the story.

I confess to often avoiding climate crisis books in my reading, whether adult or middle grade books. That’s because the entire problem seems too big to fix and it’s disheartening to think that nothing I do will completely fix the problem. 

Sydney gets to this point too and almost gives up.

“The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is just too big to fix!” Sydney said, raising her hands in the air.  … 
“The plastic pollution problem isn’t for one person to fix,” her mom said. “I keep telling you that. Everyone must make it a priority. Besides, is it really failing if you’ve learned something from it?” 

I really appreciated the characterizations of Sierra and Sydney. It can often be a challenge to tell characters apart, especially twins, but the author does a good job making them quite distinct. 

For example, Sierra, six minutes older, is transported by numbers, charts, record keeping and facts. She is the more responsible twin and is always looking out for Sydney. Sydney, on the other hand, talks to animals (even before she could understand them) and even to the ocean, acts before thinking and is often getting into trouble.

Still the twins are a unit, and their individual strengths combine to make a formidable pair of eco warriors. 

Yes, plastic pollution, like climate change, is a big problem, and yes it will take the work of many, many people, but through Sierra and Sydney young readers learn about the problem and may be inspired to brainstorm about ways to fix the it, thus contributing to the solution!