Life in the Oceans by: Lucy Baker

Genre:Non-Fiction

Publisher: Two-Can

Copyright Date: 1997

Number of Pages: 31

Reading Level: 7-11

Summary:

This book is full of what life is like in the oceans. The ocean is one of the oldest and largest living environments. Beneath the oceans are rugged mountains, active volcanoes, and endless trenches. There are animals as small as plankton and as large as the blue whale. There is actually only one ocean but because we have continents they can be divided into smaller sections: the four main oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic), and there are seas, bays and gulfs as well. The Atlantic is the biggest and busiest ocean. The oceans are always moving. They travel in movement patterns called currents and tides. These are linked to the pull on the earth from the moon.

Plants provide food for the life under the sea. Algae, and phytoplankton are two types. The plants and animals of the ocean come in all shapes and sizes. Each appearance of an animal depend on its lifestyle and where it lives. Sea anemones and sponges stay in the same spot their entire lives and thus they look more like pants than animals. Other animals look the way they do because of what they eat or who their predator is. The animals that sit around and wait for plankton are often hunted by other animals. The most notorious hunter is the shark. They are considered man eaters but there are two hundred species of sharks and only 25 of them are dangerous to humans.

People don't live in the oceans but they utilize it and its resources. They get food and raw materials from it (fish, oil, gas). A lot of the times the nets of the boats case problems from sea life and because there is so much fishing going on, fish stock has become very low in some places. People even dump pesticides and pollutants into the rivers and streams that eventually make their way to the ocean. This toxic waste kills and drives away many animals. Many countries are trying to keep this from happening. There are many legends and folk tales that come from people who live by the ocean like, "Dakuwaca Fights for His Life," that came from Fiji.

Including the information above, this book contains little text boxes of information that go along with the wonderful sea pictures that they have throughout the book.

Who would benefit from reading this book/who would I recommend this book to?

Just like the other documentary books that i have read, children would love this book because it is easy to read and there are lots of cool pictures and information about some neat creatures that they have probably never heard of.

What problems/conflicts could this book potentially cause?

None

My Reaction:

This is a very informative book. I enjoyed reading and learning about life in the ocean. The ocean has always scared me slightly and so reading about the cool things that happen there is pretty interesting. I can't imagine being an animal that is always hunted and always having to be on alert for danger. It had great photographs that illustrated the text very appropriately.