This is the first book in the Rubbish Rebellion series written to encourage children and adults alike to become better stewards of our world. Yapper the Unhappy Snapper features a little crab who wants to play with his friends. Unfortunately, all his friends are sick because of the pollution and trash in the sea. Humans have thrown things away that have caused a disastrous and messy state of the ocean. Yapper takes it upon himself to do something about it and sets out to clean the waters. He swims about saving many friends such as a spinner dolphin, a green turtle and even a humpback whale, from the trash in the water. Each friend he saves, joins him in rescuing others. When the are finished, they gather up all the trash and dispose of it properly. The whole story is told in rhyming text, but there were times that it was difficult to read aloud as it did not always flow easily and the rhymes were a bit forced. My grandson loved this book due to the illustrations and the message. He told me all about what humans need to do with their garbage and about swimming in clean water at the lake. He wasn't sure what he could do to clean up the ocean because he can't swim out there in the deep water, but he could tell people not to throw their garbage in the water. This is a great book for school and class libraries when discussing the environment and learning about keeping our world clean for future generations.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This was a fantastic book to explain ocean pollution to young children. My grandkids asked many questions after we read it. Would definitely recommend this book to anyone concerned about animals and pollution. 🐙🐬🐠🐡

Very cute and well-illustrated children’s book with a good message about not polluting our oceans. The characters were cute and I loved the rhyming format.

This book bears a very timely message about taking care of our precious oceans and the creatures that call them their home. It points out many dangers that its inhabitants face caused by the litter and garbage that is thrown into their underwater environment.

Yapper the Snapper wants to play with his friends but he soon discovers they are sick from the trash and pollution that has been dumped into the water.

"Some coughed and sneezed,
gasped and wheezed,
they couldn't breathe in the polluted sea."

"There were bottles and tins, crates and bins,
floating and choking the sea within."

He dons a superhero persona and swims about saving them from harm. After he heroically rescues: krill covered in swill, a spinner dolphin with her fin caught in a rusty tin, a green turtle caught in a girdle, and a huge humpback with a plastic bottle stuck in her low hole... just to name a few, happily they swim along with him as he frees even more endangered critters.

Yapper gathers and tethers up all the loose garbage which allows he and his friends to have some well-deserved playtime finally.

Now free in the sea they gathered to say,
"Thank you, Yapper, you saved the day."

The illustrations are wonderful and the message is timely and necessary if we are to clean up and restore the ocean to its natural beauty and cleanliness. I found the rhyming a bit awkward at times and the repetitiveness a bit too long and tedious. I wish Yapper's friends had pitched in and helped with the cleanup too making it a successful team effort. Overall, the author gets her point across and the book, when shared, will be a meaningful catalyst for a much-needed conversation about being good stewards to our oceans. It would be a meaningful book to have in a classroom or an elementary school library also.

"Yapper the Unhappy Snapper" by Chez Rafter was a fun, children's book teaching kids about pollution in the ocean and how it harms fish, and other sea animals. The book was beautifully illustrated and presented a good message for kids to learn.

The main thing that detracted from the book for me was its repetitiveness. The protagonist, Yapper, goes to each sea animal that is negatively affected by pollution and saves them from it over and over. Nothing really changes in each scenario and after a few pages the story seems redundant and contrived.

The story could have been improved if there was just one problem to solve and Yapper asked all his other sea creature friends to get together, pitch in to find a solution and save the ocean.

I received this eBook free of charge from Aurora House via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. I did not receive any fiscal compensation from either company for this review and the opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.

I read two books by Chez Rafter recently, the first of which was <i>Yapper the Unhappy Snapper. </i>This happens to be a rather amazing book for a number of reasons. The most important reason, though, is that it sends an amazing message about littering and human waste. There's no doubt that reading this book will prompt heartfelt and genuine thought about the perils that sea life face when people are inconsiderate and unsafe with our trash and our oil. In that vein, this is one of the most important books I've come across. And as a bonus, it has some pretty adorable illustrations to go along with it.

<i>Yapper the Unhappy Snapper</i> features a little crab who just wants to spend his days playing with his friends. Unfortunately, due to the disastrous and messy state of the ocean, all of his friends are sick. The pollution that has occurred because of people has become a health risk for all the creatures of the sea. So Yapper takes it upon himself to do something about it and sets out to clean the waters. And the whole story is told with a brilliant rhyming poem.

Of course, the truth is that the story is a bit unrealistic and more likely many of the fish in the story would die from such dire conditions. Within the story, the rhyming could have been better implemented. But the fact of the matter is that this is an important message for children to learn about. Pollution is something they should be aware of. And while I definitely preferred the other pollution story Rafter wrote that I read alongside this one, I love the message this book sends.

From beautiful illustrations to a brilliant storyline, Rafter's <i>Yapper the Unhappy Snapper</i> is an excellent book to have on your shelves.

<i>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Such an adorable book. Cute illustrations with a really powerful message. A perfect addition to a child's library.

Another cute kids book about raising awareness about how litter and pollution affects wildlife. Snappy is such a cute character who wants to help all his ocean friends! The rhyming will definitely keep kids entertained and the pictures are beautiful! Another must have book to teach kids about littering and its affects on wildlife.

First of all, I find it really unfair (and slightly offensive) when picture books don't give proper credit to the illustrators. It's a picture book; without the illustrator, you basically have a few words.

That's especially true in this case. I think this is supposed to be a rhyming picture book, and some of the words do rhyme... but there's no meter or rhythm. In some cases, it was if the author was just looking for as many rhyming words as possible.

The illustrations are kind of cute, but most of them undermine the title. When Yapper goes around with a goofy grin on his face for the majority of the book, it's kind of difficult to remember I'm supposed to be reading about an unhappy fish.

And why is Yapper so unhappy? Because the sea is filled with garbage. So he sets about helping his friends free themselves from various bits of refuse (well, all except for the coral trout, which he saved from a fishing hook; this was supposed to be a book about polluted oceans, not vegetarianism). After each save, "they happily swam along". (So much for being an unhappy snapper.)

What really irked me, though, was the ending. After gathering up all the garbage, the sea creatures toss it up onto land into a precarious-looking bin on the beach. It has a recycling symbol on it, but the words refer to "garbage trash". It's true that we shouldn't be throwing our garbage into the water... but if you're going to have an environmental message, it should be more along the lines of "reduce, reuse, recycle"... not "throw it in the landfill".

I'm afraid this one is a bit of a miss for me. All the animals do is pass the garbage back onto the land. That's not exactly a solution to the problem.

I confess, I did read the series out of order, since I read the second book first. I like both books and the plots are great, as well as the illustrations but to be honest, I like this one better. The flow seems more easy to me and the rimes are better than in the second one. That being said, in the second book they aren't bad, just not as good as in this first book. All in all, this is a great children's book that will make kids and their parents think about pollution and how to be more responsible with where you throw your trash. A nice story with an even better lesson.

Tapped is a cute childrens book with great characters and a good message. This would be good for a class room or a gift for a kids birthday.

**4.5 stars**

Thank you Aurora House and NetGalley for giving us the opportunity to read this eArc.

I requested this book because my son is always asking me how we can save the sea animals from pollution. This is the perfect book and in my son's words, "I love this book, a LOT!" We enjoyed seeing Yapper the Unhappy Snapper help his friends in ocean that's polluted with human trash. Now if only it was the humans helping the sea animals, it would be even better, my son said to me aloud. So true! We enjoyed the illustrations and seeing how yapper frees his friends from pollution. The book has a great message and reinforces the idea to children that we must do things to help curb pollution in our oceans, and on Earth in general.

A book that might have been really great, but was still confident enough in its approach to have a successful impact, and demand it be considered. Our hero is a fish, unlucky when it comes to the day in question, for all his friends are tied up in the crap humans have put in the seas – the krill are stuck in oil, a crab under a plank of wood, and several other species of buddy are caught up in plastic and other discarded junk. Luckily he knows how to use scissors, levers and a whole lot more to rescue them all – for only when all are freed at his hands can playtime start. The easy, obvious and perfectly clear moral is to the fore here, as are the really nice illustrations – with really strong underwater effects, characterisation and so on – but I found the script a little bit closer to being a let-down. It's still serviceable, but the verse text is really struggling to make any meter at times, and the adult reading this will dislike the growing list of critters that have to be read out each and every spread, and will fail to get the bounce of the poetry as demanded of such a book. That aside, I wish it every success, certainly with the important lesson it conveys.