- Author: Stacey Roderick
- Illustrator: Kwanchai Moriya
- Year Published: 2016
- ISBN: 978-1-77138-345-5
Science Topics
Minimum Suggested Grade Level
Maximum Suggested Grade Level
Summary
This is a non-fiction book on 8 different ocean animals. It uses a series of questions to introduce the animals. The students are asked to guess what ocean animal is shown. It shows the readers a glimpse of a body part and asks them, "What ocean animal has a mouth like this?" Then it shows the animal in its natural habitat and has a brief description of the animals traits. The students can observe that each ocean animal has its own special body part that makes them different than the other ocean animals.Evaluation
- Appropriateness: Medium
- Authority: Medium
- Accuracy: High
- Liteary Artistry: High
- Appearance: High
Questions
Does the book foster development of processes?
Yes, the book fosters for the development of the processes prediction, observation, inference, and classification. This book explicitly asks the students to guess what ocean animals are shown in the illustrations throughout the book. This provides various opportunities for inferences and predictions. Students that don’t have background on ocean animals would be making predictions and those that do would be inferring. The book also has several opportunities for observation. The book shows 8 different ocean animals in their natural habitat and the students are able to observe them. Lastly, the book provides an opportunity to classify ocean animals into further categories.Does the book provide an opportunity for children to ask and answer their own questions?
Yes, if the students had questions about the illustrations before reading the text, they would receive a response in the description. For example, if they had a question about the name of the animal, they would then find out that it’s called a hammerhead shark because of its hammer shaped head. The teacher could also pause after the description of every ocean animal and the students could ask questions about the text.Does the book encourage children to think for themselves?
Yes, the students are encouraged to think for themselves with a series of questions like, “What ocean animal has a head like this?” The book also encourages students to think for themselves because it only gives a brief description of the animals’ traits and the featured body parts. The book has an illustration of the animals’ natural habitats, but it doesn’t explicitly tell the students why the sailfish raise their tail for instance.Is the science topic addressed in ways that are appropriate to the lesson?
The content is appropriate for the lesson whether the lesson is introduction to types of ocean animals or characteristics of living things.Is the content based on sound scientific principles? Is it accurate?
For the most part the content is based on sound scientific principles. It shows how animals have predators and prey. It mentions some of the animals’ prey and how they catch them. For example, the blue whale eats shrimp-like creatures. The book then mentions the process of catching those creatures. Although the content is accurate, one of the illustrations doesn’t look very realistic. The hammerhead shark looks like it only has one eye and that they eye is on the bottom of his head instead of on the corner of the side.Does the book distinguish between fact and fiction?
- The book is purely facts; therefore it doesn’t need to distinguish between fact and fiction.