• Age: 6 to 8
• Grade: 1 to 3

When Gretchen, Jason, Mark, and Daphne find their favorite swimming hole filled with green slime, they are horrified. A mysterious, almost magical naturalist named Riparia helps the children understand why the water became polluted-and together they figure out what they can do to bring clean water back to the river they all love.

This lively story about non-point source pollution is filled with both information and action. Realistic, lush illustrations by Olga Pastuchiv illuminate the children's passion for their river and the ecosystem it supports.

Michael J. Caduto is an internationally known storyteller, ecologist, educator, and musician. He has received the New England Award for Excellence in Environmental Education, holds an M.S. in Natural Resources/Environmental Education from the University of Michigan, and is a Senior Education Fellow with the Atlantic Center for the Environment. Caduto lives in Vermont and travels extensively, presenting environmental and cultural programs for adults and children.

Michael Caduto's profile page

Olga Pastuchiv is a children's book author, painter, and commercial illustrator. Whether working on a fishing boat in Greece or as a landscape gardener in New England, Olga is always painting. She paints things large and small, from murals and parade floats to illustrations for several poetry and botany collections and a cookbook. Her picture book Minas and the Fish (Houghton Mifflin, 1989) is about a fisherman's boy she met on Karpathos Island. Olga lives in Maine with two cats.

Olga Pastuchiv's profile page