23. Ocean Sunlight

Ocean Sunlight by Molly Bang & Penny Chisholm (The Blue Sky Press) 2012

The Prairie Builders by Sneed B. Collard III (Houghton Miflin Co.) 2005

Genre

Non-fiction; Science

Honors

SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books Middle Grades 2013

Review

Bang and Chisholm trace the life cycle of the ocean through the lens of phytoplankton (for good measure they quickly trace the life cycle of land based plants as well).  The book resembles a children's picture book and begins with narration from the sun.  All of the flora and fauna are illustrated, as are microscopic entities such as oxygen and carbon molecules, and phytoplankton.  The bulk of the book is written rather simply with few words per page.  The concepts are clearly simplified, but the basic scientific principles still come through.  The last six pages are much more densely populated with text.  Here, the authors take time to explain things in further detail and in more scientific language.  This division appears to give the book two audiences.  Small children may be satisfied with the first half of the book.  Older children may need to balance the simpler parts of the book with the fuller descriptions in the back.

illustrations from the book

Opinion

The book's simple style and picture-book-like qualities struck me as odd at first.  The opening pages don't look like work for middle school students.  But the inclusion of the notes at the book's end suggest that the book is written in this manner to appeal to a wider audience in terms of age range, reading ability, and scientific proficiency.

Ideas

The book would work well for a story time both for small children or for tweens.  The pictures are bold and beautifully illustrated.  For older children, the book might make a nice introduction to a lesson on ocean life cycles, but may feel too simple on its own.