Although the image may be difficult to look at for some students, let it be a discussion starter about ways they can help the environment.

G.’s fact states, the plastic in the oceans and waterways has a profound and deadly impact on the wildlife that rely on this habitat for food and shelter. Obe’s love for the planet and his newfound friendship with Marvin help him decide how he can protect Marvin and the environment.įor this primary source pairing, invite students to study an image of an albatross chick that has died from ingesting too much plastic. One fact states: “Pollution kills a million seabirds every year” (page 60). G is Obe’s teacher and a fellow environmentalist. When Obe comes across this strange and wild animal that only eats plastic, he thinks he has found the pollution solution. The Devlin dirt is in his blood even through the dirt may not actually belong to the Devlin family anymore. He loves the wild patch behind his house and works each day to take care of it. But to keep him safe from the developers and Tommy and his friends, Obe must make a decision that might change everything. The animal-Marvin Gardens-soon becomes Obe’s best friend and biggest secret. Water bottles, shopping bags… No one has ever seen a creature like this before, because there’s never been a creature like this before. And as he watches it, he realizes it eats plastic. One day, he sees a creature that looks kind of like a large dog, or maybe a small boar. So Obe hangs out at the creek by his house, in the last wild patch left, picking up litter and looking for animal tracks. And he keeps getting nosebleeds, because of that thing he doesn’t like to talk about. His best friend Tommy abandoned him for the development kids. His family’s farmland has been taken over by developers. The unaltered stomach contents of a dead albatross chick photographed on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific in September 2009 include plastic marine debris fed the chick by its parents.

Me and marvin gardens