Friday 13 March 2020

Q&A with P M McCormick



So today I have a Q&A with P M McCormick, author of The Fish with a Wish, a brilliant picture book that focuses on our impact on the environment!



 Hi Paula! Tell us a little about your book and the inspiration behind it.


It has always been my ambition to have a book published and I am in the process of writing a novel. However, in recent years the growing plastic crisis in our oceans and seas and watching the media coverage of this problem is very upsetting. I am not an expert in this field but would like to feel that by writing this book I have helped to raise awareness. I think that it is important for children to learn from an early age about how they can help to reduce the amount of plastic that we use and to think carefully about how it is disposed of. I hope that this book is both fun and at the same time plants a very important seed in the mind of our future generations.

Having future generations care about the environment is extremely important. What can parents do to make sure their children are aware of their environmental impact?



Children have access to the most wonderful information about the environment through books, the internet, schools and TV. Parents can encourage their children to learn about the effects that plastics are having on our seas and oceans and all the creatures that live in them. 


Sadly, we can’t all be like William and personally save sea creatures! What can we do to make sure that plastic doesn’t end up in our oceans?


We can try to buy less plastic and use the facilities that our Local Authorities provide us with to enable recycling of our plastic waste.


What are some things we can do to reduce our plastic waste?


Taking your own shopping bags to the supermarkets.  Take your own drinks bottle or cup to restaurants and say no to plastic cutlery of drinking straws.  When in the supermarket try to avoid weighing your fruit and veg in plastic bags.



William was such a fun character to draw!
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions! Finally just for a bit of fun, if Angel Fish could grant you three wishes, what would you wish for?

No problem, my first would be the same as William, for everyone to look after our seas and oceans.

My second wish would be to save all the beautiful creatures especially the orangutans in the rainforests that are losing their homes through deforestation and the palm oil plantations.

My third wish would be to raise awareness of the melting ice caps caused by global warming.

Perhaps these wishes will come true through my next two books that I have written which I hope are enjoyed as much as The Fish with a Wish



My Thoughts


As you probably know, I don’t normally review picture books, but this one had such as important topic I had to make an exception! I loved how Paula made a serious topic fun for children to learn about by showing how plastic pollution hurts Wiliam and his friends. By following William’s examples, even young children can start to learn about plastic pollution and think about where they are putting their litter. I loved how the book was in rhyming couplets, making the words flow. It made the book fun to read and perfect for reading out loud! I also have to mention the wonderful illustrators at Austin Macauley who really brought the story to life with all the wonderful pictures. Young children can often react to a picture more than to words, so seeing the seagull with plastic wrapped round it’s beak could really help them to understand better. I thought the book was a fun way to educate young children on plastic pollution and getting them to care about the environment!

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