Childhood friends publish picture book to help fight plastic pollution

A pair of childhood friends from London will publish their first children’s book in a bid to help fight plastic pollution.

The lifelong friends Lizzie Nightingale, 28, and Ellie Boyle, 27, who met at high school, published Poseidon’s Plastic Problem this month.

Poseidon’s Plastic Problem, tells the tale of Poseidon’s battle against plastic pollution taking over his kingdom.

The pair’s inspiration came from a serendipitous chat one day: “We’d both been looking for a creative outlet alongside our main jobs, and so the idea naturally just happened over a cup of tea one day. Lizzie has always drawn quirky little characters, and Ellie has always written funny little poems, so we thought why not combine that and create a children’s book.

“We wanted to make something, particularly for 3-5 year olds, that felt accessible and fun but also had an important message. It’s hard to ignore the environmental impact plastic has, so that felt like a good premise for our book.”

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The effect of plastic on the seas is sickening and has a devastating impact on sea-life, and the creative duo wanted the book to spread the message to children that they can help save the seas.

“It was key for us that the messaging in our book wasn’t too gloomy, but instead a gentle and fun way to introduce concepts around reducing, reusing and recycling.”Lockdown gave the pair the time and motivation to finish the book they had been drafting since 2019, as both had been juggling full-time jobs alongside creating the tale.

“We can’t believe that now we can hold a physical copy in our hands!”

Talk of more in the series is already underway: “We’d love to do more books! There are so many different issues around the environment and climate change that we’d like to explore, we feel like we’ve only scratched the surface.

“We feel so passionately that children should learn about this when they’re younger so they can grow up to influence the world around them.”