Life Under the Sea

Ocean, it’s my Home!

Written by Angela Royston

Published by Crabtree Publishing Company

Copyright 2012

24 pages

Non-Fiction

 

            I chose this book simply because it was about the habitants of the ocean. Last spring I visited the Atlanta Aquarium. I was amazed at the amount of creatures that live under the water. I was stunned by their distinctive bodies and life styles. This book is divided into sections that explain a specific concept. Most of the concepts are the different homes under the water. After explaining the home environment, it explains different sea creatures that live in that part of the ocean. It even tells about some of the birds that live around the ocean. I love that it includes a glossary and index in the back of the book for reference.

            The images in this book are all digital photography. The images are realistic showing actual details and characteristics of the animals. The photographs were taken from numerous different photographers; therefore, no illustrator is designated for this book. The text placement within this book is very informal. It is placed to fit around images. A lot of the text is written in colorful callouts to draw emphasis to specific information. Each page has a similar background at the top that fades into a different image at the bottom based on the page information.

            The teacher could definitely benefit from having this book in a classroom library. The teacher could use this book for a read aloud during a time where the students are studying the ocean life. The teacher could use this in a science lesson as a reference for students to use in a research activity on certain animals from the book. The teacher could turn this into a writing lesson as well. The students could write facts they learned from the story on a graphic organizer about each animal. The teacher could allow the students to pick their favorite creature from the book and let them research more information about its lifestyle. The students could even present this information to a classroom, or even do this as a group project. This book would need to be used primarily in the higher elementary grade levels.