Gather round now people. It's story time.

Come on, come on in close.

Well, I think we better just to say the title and then start reading the book.

You know, it being a children's book, that's what's often done for kids.

Okay.

Here comes the garbage barge.

The author is Jonah Winter. His book is based on a true story that some of you might remember.

Garbage.

Big heaping, stinking mounds of garbage.

Big bags of garbage on the sidewalk.

Garbage trucks overflowing with garbage.

Landfills reaching up to the heavens with more and more garbage. Garbage garbage!

This was back in 1987.

Some garbage from Islep, that's near New York City, was loaded onto a barge, bound for North Carolina.

So, on March 22nd, 1987, all 3168 tons of garbage was loaded up.

Then a little tugboat named the Break of Dawn began its long journey south,

tugging the rusty old garbage barge behind it.

The Break of Dawn was a happy little tugboat. Her captain and crew was Captain Duffy St. Pierre, a crusty old sailor.

I'm a retired seaman. My name is Duffy St. Pierre.

Together they tugged the garbage barge down the east coast of America.

Captain St. Pierre, who came from Louisiana, got the barge from New York down to Morehead City, North Carolina,

where the garbage was supposed to be unloaded. And that's when things began to go wrong.

...