Beneath the Waves: Celebrating the Ocean Through Pictures, Poems, and Stories by Stephanie Warren Drimmer

 

Beneath the Waves: Celebrating the Ocean 

Through Pictures, Poems, and Stories

by Stephanie Warren Drimmer

National Geographic Kids, 2021, 192 pages

This year's Earth Day theme is "Restore the Earth" and what better place to begin than with the earth's oceans. After all, there is more ocean on earth than there is land, and unfortunately, it has become a dumping ground for a lot of man-made garbage, making it a good place to begin restoring. But before that, it would be good to get to know the oceans...and Beneath the Waves is the perfect place to begin. If you look at the Table of Contents you can see that it is a book chockablock with information accompanied by some wonderful poetry and many exquisite photographs.

The book begins with an explanation of the three ocean zones. There is the sunlit zone, the twilight zone, and the midnight zone and readers will learn that each one is a world unto itself. As you can see, the book is arranged in eleven chapters beginning at the ocean's edge and ending in the extreme ocean depths. The last chapter looks at People and Oceans.

Each chapter includes two-page spreads on each of the topics covered, and includes lots of relevant interesting factoids. For example, in On the Beach readers discover what a beach is and how those tiny grains of sand are created. There is also information on sea shells and all different kinds of beach living creatures, from crabs to turtles and beach birds (yes, there's many more than just seagulls waiting to snatch the ice cream right off your cone). 

Throughout the book, each chapter ends with a section called Sea Sleuths that looks at a topic relative to the chapter's subject matter. Why is the Sea Salty?, The Myth of Mermaids, The Myth of the Kraken, and The Search for Longitude are just some of what readers will marvel at. 

The next chapter, Between Two Worlds, looks at animals that live on both land and in the water. Here you will meet swimming lizards and creatures most of us are familiar with - seal and sea lions. Interesting factoid: do you know the difference between a seal and a seal lion? And that seals share their ancestry with dogs? There are also a wide variety of sea birds here, too. And in some parts of the world, there are crocodiles and even some fish that will leave the water and fly through the air. 

Chapter Three, Wading In, begins with a look at the different kinds of sea snails living in the ocean, and the variety of colorful boneless echinoderms or spiny creatures such as sand dollars and sea urchins. This is followed by a chapter on Reef Life, all about the different kinds of colorful coral reefs that flourish in the tropical parts of the ocean and the wide variety of marine species that dwell in these coral reefs.

Leaving the shallower waters, the next few chapter explore the deeper parts of the ocean. First up are Ocean Forests, what they are, for example, eel-grass, seaweed, and kelp. and who lives there, creatures like crabs, leafy sea dragons, octopuses, and the enemy of ocean forests, the spiny sea urchin and the enemy of the sea urchin, the otter, among others that readers will learn about. 

The next chapter introduces The Open Ocean, which covers more than half the earth and is more than two miles deep. This is the home to animals like the giant blue whale and the tiny plankton. In between, there are jelly fish, schools of different kinds of fish, sea creatures like the cuttlefish, which is really part of the mollusk family and not a fish at all. Like octopuses and squids, they have the ability to change their skin pattern, color and texture to blend into their surroundings and fool any hungry predators. And of course, the open ocean is home to sharks and dolphins.

Chapter Seven, On the Move, follows those ocean creatures that are either swimming in search of food or breeding grounds or hitching a ride on these distance swimmers. Readers learn about the journey of salmon, humpback whales, and leatherback sea turtles, as well as hitchhikers like seahorses and barnacles. There is also information on the many migrating sea birds.

In Life on the Icy Edge, readers heads to the north and south poles to learn about penguins, seals, walruses, polar bears, orcas and narwhals, and there is an informative 2 page Sea Sleuths spread called Arctic Experts, all about the Inuit, the indigenous people living there and who know the arctic better than anyone. 

In the next chapter, Deep Down, readers enter the twilight zone, where sunlight no longer filters in and there is just blackness. Here there are some really strange sea creatures to discover, such as the hatchetfish, the Sloan's viper, and the lanternfish.

Chapter 10 brings readers into the Extreme Ocean, the least known place on earth. Here there are "mountains, geysers that spew superheated noxious water, and all kinds of living things that make these alien places their home." (pg 159) And this is where shipwrecks provide a home for all kinds of deep water species, like sear stars, crabs and fish.

Finally, Chapter 11 is about People and Oceans. This includes spreads on the history of ocean exploration, the importance of oceans, ways of protecting oceans and their occupants, and finally, how people have polluted our oceans and why I chose this book to highlight Earth Day 2021.

Beneath the Waves make the ocean sound like a pretty amazing place - beautiful, scary, powerful, busy, and necessary for sustaining life on earth. Thankfully, this book ends on a note of hope - "...success stories [that] show. when people step in to help, they can make a difference.' (pg 184)

Wondering what kids can do for Earth Day and every day after, and to help clean up and restore the ocean? You can find all kinds of activities and projects just right for youngsters at National Geographic Kids Celebrates Earth Day.

Or visit the official Earth Day website HERE

Meet the Author:                                                                                            Stephanie Warren Drimmer writes books and magazine stories for kids. She covers all topics weird and wonderful, including adorable animals, freaky brain experiments, and the hunt for new planets. She is a longtime contributor to National Geographic Kids magazine and has written many books for National Geographic kids, including Hey, Baby!, Mastermind, The Book of Heroines, Ultimate Secrets Revealed, and Ultimate Weatherpedia. Drimmer studied science journalism at New York University. You can find Stephanie on stephaniedrimmer.com, and on Twitter @Stephdrimmer 

This book is recommended for readers age 8+

This book was received from Media Masters Publicity in exchange for a review

Ocean: Secrets of the Deep by Sabrina Weiss, illustrated by Giulia De Amicis

Ocean: Secrets of the Deep by Sabrina Weiss,

illustrated by Giulia De Amicis

What on Earth Publishing, 2019, 72 pages 

What to do on a hot, hot weekend? Go to the ocean, of course. But if you can't get to the actual ocean, reading about it is the next best thing. So, as Sabrina Weiss says in her introduction to Ocean: "Take a deep breath and let's plunge beneath the waves!"

We are taught that there are five oceans in the world, each with its own distinctive characteristics as you go from place to place, but according to Weiss, they are actually connected to each other, forming one huge, global ocean, and holding 96.5% of all the water found on earth. But how much do we really know about the ocean? Not much, it seems.

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Weiss begins her ocean explorations by introducing readers to the five different ocean zones - the sunlight zone, the twilight zone, the midnight zone, the abyss, and hadal zone. Zones are based on depth and the amount of sunlight that reaches them, or doesn't reach them, as the case may be. Weiss describes what is known about each zone, and the names and characteristics of the sea creatures that inhabit each zone.

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From zones, Weiss looks at the ocean's different ecosystems. An ecosystem consists of the living and non-living things needed to support it, including animals, plants, organisms, and soil, plus air, water, rocks, and sunlight. Each element has its own part to play in supporting an ecosystem. Polar seas, coral reefs, deltas, salt marshes, mangroves, and kelp forests are all examined, including the different species that inhabit them.

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I found the sections on Marine Life very interesting. Ocean life is teeming with activity and Weiss gives readers an excellent overview of who's who, where they live and what they eat, and includes information of unusual friendships or schools of fish, because everyone, including fish, knows there's safety in numbers when traveling. Budding marine biologists will discover how marine animals communicate with each other, how to tell the difference between male and female fish, and those sea creatures that are masters of disguise. One thing I discovered is that a symbiotic relationship exists between some species when they visit cleaning stations like coral reefs. They swim in for a cleaning, and other species will pick off and eat parasites, dead skin, algae and slime off that have accumulated on the visitor's body.. It sounds gross but everyone benefits from it, and as Weiss points out, it's like a day at the spa.

It would be irresponsible if a book like this didn't discuss how our ocean is in peril. Pollution, overfishing, climate change, warming water temperatures, dying coral reefs, and an ocean full of plastic are all putting our ocean and the marine life living there in jeopardy. Weiss not only discusses these perils, but she also give some suggestions for how we can all help protect the ocean.

One of the things that makes this book so wonderful to explore are the graphics. Every aspect of marine life is authentically illustrated and identified. The art is as lovely as it is informative, and will no doubt elicit a lot of exploration and conversation.

Another one of the interesting parts of this book is the four-page spread devoted to myths and legends about the ocean, including historic speculation about the whether Atlantis really existed and if it did, where it might have been.

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This is a book that is chockablock with information, but as Weiss concludes, there is so much more to explore, so much more we don't know and maybe, just maybe a young reader out there will be the next person to discover more of the oceans's secrets.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was gratefully provided to me by Media Masters Publicity

The Brilliant Deep: Rebuilding the World's Coral Reefs by Kate Messner, illustrated by Matthew Forsythe

When Ken Nedimeyer was a boy, his father's job at NASA meant living in Florida, and, for Ken, that meant exploring the ocean.

Influenced by underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau, Ken learned how to scuba dive and as he swam around the ocean, observing the world of fish and sea stars, he also began noticing the beautiful coral reefs in the Florida Keys.

Made up of countless tiny sea creatures, Ken found them to be just beautiful, and wanted to know everything about them - how the reefs grew so large, why they were different colors and shapes.

But, one hot summer, Ken noticed that the reefs were beginning to lose their color, and the sea urchins, who made sure algae did overtake the coral reefs, were beginning to die, and consequently, so were the massive coral reefs. But Ken just didn't know what to do for the dying reefs.

'The reefs of the Florida Keys teemed with life."

As an adult, Ken operated a rock farm in the Florida Keys, growing rocks full of sea life to help keep the ocean water safe and healthy for the other forms of sea life. One day, a coral colony spawned and attached itself to one of Ken's rock on his farm. And it grew! So Ken and his daughter began attaching corals onto other rocks and they also grew.

If you could grow corals on rocks, Ken wondered, could you transplant them onto a dying reef? Ken decided to test out this theory. Ken founded a group called the Coral Restoration Foundation, staffed by volunteers. As the corals grew, the volunteers transplanted these coral colonies, attaching them (with glue) in places on the reefs where they hoped the corals would take hold and flourish.

Did the transplanted corals survive? Yes, they did and now Ken's group travels around the world, teaching others how to grow and transplant healthy corals in order to save their dying corals.

Messner begins and ends the The Brilliant Deep with one tiny coral spawn and how it can grow into a new colony. And what feels to be a simple story in between is in actuality a wonderful lesson about ocean life. Readers learns how coral reefs are formed, why they are important to the not just the ocean's environment, but also to ours, and that sometimes, it takes just one person with an idea to make a difference.

The Brilliant Deep has been a favorite of my young readers right from the beginning. Not only is it interesting and informative, it is also quite beautifully illustrated. Forsythe's colorful, batik-style, gouache and watercolor washed illustrations are done in a watery pastel palette of mainly blues, greens. and sunny yellows give the perfect effect needed for a book about the ocean and its colorful reefs.

"It starts with one."

Messner cleverly brings the story of coral reefs and the story of Ken Nedimeyer full circle with to a satisfying ending that connects them back to the beginning of the book - spawns to coral reefs, a young boy to the man he became. She also includes more information about coral reefs in the back matter, including ways kids can help, online ways to explore attempts to save the coral reefs, and vocabulary words used through the book.

This book is recommended for readers age 6+
This book was sent to me by the publisher, Chronicle Books