To See In The Sea

Marine biologists study all life in the earth's oceans and other saltwater habitats.  Exploration of a world containing more than ninety-six percent of earth's water increases understanding and assists in preservation efforts.  The adaptations made by the fauna in the given conditions are nothing short of incredible.

According to this statement

Scientists estimate that no more than 5% of the oceans have been explored. (MARINEBIO)

we've many, many more wonders to discover.  Author Brenda Z. Guiberson and illustrator Gennady Spirin (Frog Song and The Greatest Dinosaur Ever) present to readers an array of underwater residents in their newest collaboration, The Most Amazing Creature In The Sea (Henry Holt And Company, June 6, 2015).  Some of them will be familiar to most readers, others will be enchantingly different.

Who is the most amazing creature in the sea?

Twelve creatures speak with a voice of authority about assets which elevate them to the honor named in the title.  As their characteristics are revealed your respect will grow.  It will give you pause to realize something with no brain backbone, lungs or gills can be so deadly.  Having a large number of eyes and lethal venom more than compensates.

Can you name the reptile which dives up to 4,000 feet?  They also have no fear of the aforementioned creature, dining on them with relish.  One blue-blooded being uses blue light and blue goo to discourage predators.  In the search for food eyes which rotate, looking through the top of your head, then shifting to the front again, might come in handy.

The mimic octopus does exactly as the name implies replicating the appearance of other sea neighbors.  It's a tad bit creepy to learn about the young male anglerfish and their attachment to larger females.  The word gross will quickly spring to mind when learning of the habits of the hagfish, also known as the snot fish.

If you think a being would need to be big to carry 300 million eggs, you would be right.  It's a record holder.  Can you name the largest shark and its size?  In one big gulp this largest creature to ever live on earth holds 17,000 gallons of water.

You will have to be vigilant to spot a leafy sea dragon but it will be well worth the trouble.  Physical characteristics make it seem to be seaweed.  Teeth in their throat?  Wolffish live up to their name.  Seven other smaller inhabitants are named helpers.  Without them the previous twelve would find survival difficult.  The chain of life from the largest to the smallest is essential under the sea.


For the twelve selected creatures Brenda Z. Guiberson begins with I am a... followed by carefully-chosen, intriguing, and sometimes cringe-worthy, facts stated in conversation.  Each animal is speaking directly to the reader.  They are trying to convince us they are

the most amazing creature in the sea!  

Using the same format for each presentation creates a sense of anticipation as well as a cadence in the narrative.


Gennady Spirin opens his artistic portrayal of the text with an illustration spanning across the spine from the back to the front, left to right.  He takes us down into the depths of the ocean with shades of green, gold, brown and black.  Luminous and textured the intricate details invite us to reach out and touch the pages.  (I am working with an ARC.) On the title, verso, dedication and author's note pages, text is displayed on a marbleized swirl of blues and greens depicting a watery background. 

Fourteen two-page images, the creatures, helpers and conclusion, gorgeously mirror the world in which these beings live.  Rich colors and nearly photographic portraits of the marine life will captivate readers.  Spirin shifts our viewpoint from an encompassing scene to being so close we can look the animal in their eyes.   Little more than two inches are reserved at the bottom of each picture to serve as a canvas for the narrative.

One of several favorite illustrations of mine is the leatherback sea turtle.  For this picture Spirin elected to bring us close to the animal.  The turtle is at the edge of the shore, one flipper dipped into the foamy swirling water.  Patches of grainy sand spot the tough skin.  One lively eye is peering at us.


The Most Amazing Creature In The Sea penned by Brenda Z. Guiberson with pictures by Gennady Spirin is a must read and must have for all professional collections.  If you have a lover of weird and wonderful animal facts in your home or classroom, they will certainly enjoy this title.  This is one of those books which will inspire readers to search for more information such as supplied in the author's note, bibliography and online sources listed at the back of the book.

To discover more about Brenda Z. Guiberson and Gennady Spirin please visit their websites by following the links attached to their names.  At the publisher's website you can view eight interior images.



Please visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to see the other titles selected by participating bloggers in the 2015 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Which Is It?

For those who pursue a passion of inquiry into the age of dinosaurs, there can never be too many books on the topic.  Every new volume is treated like a much-desired gift.  You never know what exciting bit of information will act as a missing piece to be placed in the puzzle for these prehistoric creatures.

Discoveries by paleontologists continue to expand the knowledge base.  Four years ago in the state of Utah, a new dinosaur, Lythronax argestes, was found, confirming dinosaurs of the giant variety were around millions of years before the Tyrannosaurus Rex.  After four years, the fossil went on display November 6, 2013 at the Natural History Museum of Utah. The masterful team, author Brenda Z. Guiberson and illustrator Gennady Spirin, which earlier this year released Frog Song (Henry Holt and Company, February 2013) have collaborated in a new title, The Greatest Dinosaur Ever (Henry Holt and Company, October 2013).

Who was the greatest dinosaur that ever lived?
I was the greatest. I was the tallest and the biggest herbivore. I had a long neck with the highest reach into the trees. The earth shook when I walked.

Sauroposeidon does indeed fit this description but eleven other dinosaurs have their say in the pages that follow.  Each enumerates their unique features, certain they were the greatest dinosaur of all!  Readers will marvel at the special qualities of each, those adapting them to their habitats and pursuit of food.

Which dinosaur was the longest?  Which could swallow five hundred pounds of food?  Which had three-foot-long claws?  Was it Tyrannosaurus Rex, Spinosaurus or Therizinosaurus?

Seventeen diamond-shaped plates ran along the back of one with a tall having the longest spikes.  Another had armor covering its entire body, including its eyelids.  Hollow bones contributed to a third's phenomenal speed, over forty miles per hour.


Will it be brain size, night vision, flying, parenting or the smallest which will snag the prize as the greatest dinosaur of all?  Decisions, decisions...you are asked to choose.  If you lived then and there, what would you value the most?


The narrative format used by Brenda Z. Guiberson will have readers feeling like participants at a round table discussion, each dinosaur giving voice to their outstanding physical attributes.  Repetition of beginning and ending statements for each entry, provide a rhythm, a flow.  Beneath each dinosaur's name a pronunciation guide is shown.


Elaborate oil paintings by Gennady Spirin  extend edge to edge throughout the book beginning with the jacket and cover.  Tyrannosaurus Rex roaring as it moves in for a meal on the jacket is accompanied by Spinosaurus on the cover, rows of sharp teeth lining its open mouth.  The title page and two narrative closing pages feature large eggs, the first with necks, heads and feet of different dinosaurs emerging from cracks and the latter, a backdrop for text surrounded by a variety of dinosaurs.

Each dinosaur is colorfully portrayed in a stunning landscape, a misty quality associated with a warmer, humid climate permeating all the pages.  All twelve are in motion, sometimes only one will be showcased, other times there will be a group.  With little stretch of the imagination, these illustrations come to life with all the sights and sounds of the age.  My favorite is of the Spinosaurus, standing on a cliff above a large body of water, trees framing each side, dinosaurs in flight, near and far.

Whether you are one of the legions of dinosaur devotees or merely curious, The Greatest Dinosaur Ever written by Brenda Z. Guiberson with illustrations by Gennady Spirin is a book to be read over and over; the text and illustrations enticing your return. Two pages at the back contain thumbnail pictures of each dinosaur giving the meaning of their name, the pronunciation again, their size, the period in which they lived and their location. On the final page an author's note, bibliography and online resources are supplied.

Please follow the links embedded in the author's and illustrator's names to access their websites.  If you wish to see more pages from this title go to the publisher's website linked here. This is a link to a printable PDF file activity guide.  This title could be paired with How Big Were Dinosaurs? by Lita Judge and Alphasaurs and other prehistoric types by Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss.

Ribbit Rhapsody

One of the sweetest, neatest sounds and a sure sign winter is leaving, is stepping out for a final walk before bed to hear a chorus of spring peepers; the silence of the night filled with their distinctive notes. Many a summer my gardens have been home for toads large and small, gobbling up insects.  Last year a tree toad set up residence on the box for my decorative lights right outside my front door.  Napping during the day would give him the energy to climb my siding in the evening using his gripper toes.

Dinosaurs may have vanished but frogs remained adapting to the conditions found in various parts of the world they call home.  In Frog Song (Henry Holt and Company, February, 2013), written by Brenda Z. Guiberson with illustrations by Gennady Spirin, readers visit six of the seven continents as introductions to eleven distinctive frogs (and toads) are made.  While differences and similarities are a focus all are tied together by a common thread.

A frog song 

is a celebration

of clean water, plants,

and insects to eat.

As long as the music of frogs is being made all is well in their respective habitats.  Like the instruments in an orchestra each contributes a specific sound to the overall symphonic world score.  Rain forest tree tops, spider holes, muddy swamps, beech forests, dried pond beds, deserts and waterfalls will resonate with their cheerful chatter.

From the strawberry poison dart frog in Costa Rica who carries each of her five tadpoles to a separate pool of water high in the trees to the Great Plains narrow-mouth toad found in Oklahoma who lives in a tarantula hole freeing it of insects to the Surinam toad living in Ecuador who carries one hundred eggs under her skin until they hatch or to Ethiopia where we find the shovel-nosed frog who digs a place for her eggs until the floods come, we are informed of parenthood rituals.  For some it's the male who provides the protection and care; in Spain the male midwife toad carries the eggs in a string on his back until the tadpoles start to squiggle or in Chile the Darwin's frog places about thirty tadpoles inside his vocal sacs for seven weeks until they hop from his open mouth. Whether it's a psst-psst, buzzbuzzbuzz, click-clack, bonk...bonk...bonk or tinktinktinktink, each tune signifies a particular presence to a careful listener. 

For each of the eleven frogs Brenda Z. Guiberson has penned a paragraph embedded with facts.  Use of alliteration, onomatopoeia and descriptive verbs serve to deliver the well-researched details of their songs and young; trills, belt out, rattles or bellows.  Readers are immediately taken to a geographic setting as Guiberson begins each section with In...

Upon opening the jacket the strawberry poison dart frog on the front is extended to the back to complete a stunning portrayal.  The cover, front and back, is a completely different, equally impressive illustration featuring an enormous bellied frog with others among lilies, pads and reeds.  Identical opening and closing endpapers are a gorgeous display of flora fit for the frog inhabitants.

Using tempra, watercolor, and pencil on arches watercolor paper Gennady Spirin works his magic creating masterful, intricate two-page spreads for each frog; the narrative carefully inserted into the design.  Lush, realistic settings including appropriate flora and fauna surround the close-up of the showcased amphibians.  The title page, verso, dedication, Frogs in Trouble (author's note), Bibliography and Frog Facts Online are framed with delicate plants and the same frogs seen in the endpapers.


Reading Frog Song written by Brenda Z. Guiberson with illustrations by Gennady Spirin aloud is as much a joy for one's ears as seeing the pictures is a delight for one's eyes; combining the two sends this piece of nonfiction soaring to greatness.  For more information about the author and illustrator follow the links embedded in their names leading to their official websites.  This link is to the publisher website highlighting eight pictures from the title.  Be sure to watch them full screen.  For a four page teacher's guide follow this link.