Summer is a great time for beach trips, splashing in the sun and enjoying the magic of the ocean. For anyone who prefers to stay cool and dry, however, books about watery wonders are the perfect thing for a hot summer day.
Candlewick
“Great White Shark” by Claire Saxby, illustrated by Cindy Lane.
“Great White Shark” by Claire Saxby, illustrated by Cindy Lane. (Ages 5 through 8. Candlewick Press. $18.99.)
Cindy Lane’s sun-dappled illustrations — created with seawater and natural pigments as well as watercolors, pastel, and digital effects — offer an alluring view of the great white shark cruising through life.
The text is as elegant as a curved fin, offering day-in-the-life moments as well as background information about the star of this story: “She is a silent and powerful submarine and follows her own maps,” hunting, swimming, and then bearing shark pups who venture off to begin their own solitary, fascinating lives.
___
Candlewick
“Behold the Octopus!” by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez.
“Behold the Octopus!” by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez. (Ages 4 through 8. Peachtree. $18.99.)
In “Behold the Octopus!” the cephalopod’s slick, undulating body seems almost to crawl off the page, brought to gorgeous life by Thomas Gonzalez’s pastel and colored-pencil illustrations.
Suzanne Slade’s poetic text offers both an appreciation of how the octopus’s “eight long arms swirl and curl through salty seas” and clearly written, intriguing facts about this versatile creature’s life. Slade explores the octopus’s boneless physique, mimicry, and hunting and problem-solving skills, and marvels in its overall strangeness to human eyes and minds.
___
Candlewick
“A is for Australian Reefs” by Frané Lessac.
“A is For Australian Reefs” by Frané Lessac. (Ages 5 through 8. Candlewick. $18.99.)
From Australian reefs to zebra seahorses and every scuttling, swimming, gliding, gobbling creature and bustling habitat in between, Frané Lessac’s vibrantly colored A to Z pays tribute to the stunning biodiversity of Australia. Lesser known creatures, like the irukandji, a small, very venomous jellyfish, and big stars, such as the Great Barrier Reef, “so big that it can be seen from space,” all get glorious spreads.
Lessac also peppers her pages with in-depth information about reef life, climate change, and astounding underwater inhabitants such as leafy sea dragons, wobbegongs, handfish and nudibranchs, making it a joyful book to read and read again.
___
Caroline Luzzatto has taught preschool and fourth grade. Reach her at [email protected]
