Secrets of the Sea by Kate Baker and Eleanor Taylor
| Secrets of the Sea by Kate Baker and Eleanor Taylor | |
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| Category: Children's Non-Fiction | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: A book that could frustrate the purist in the science department, but would suit a school library no end. I can't see it as a household item, though, however pretty it might look. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 96 | Date: September 2016 |
| Publisher: Big Picture Press | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 9781783704347 | |
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When the young are urged to explore the world around them, we adults never state it, but there's a huge section of the world they are quite unlikely to go investigating in. And for obvious reasons – it can be slightly dangerous even to enter it, and while it's huge it's not on every doorstep. I'm talking about the ocean, of course – which is where books such as this come in to explain and illustrate the topic. With so much of it to be researched and encountered, you never know – this book might well inspire a pioneering discovery some time in the future.
What we get is a sturdy square hardback, and while containing few words it's powered by the visuals, presented very well on this large format. And you'll see the imagery is front and foremost in the publisher's mind – the book cover and the press release both fail to mention even the author's name. This then is an art book regarding sealife – but (oh, the irony) I do have to debate whether it shows the full picture.
For one thing, this is a quite scattershot look at things aquatic. There is very little background, or context, to anything we're presented with, and beyond the chapters moving away from the shoreline into the rich depths of the deepest seas, we get no narrative whatsoever. We don't follow the size scale up or down, we don't follow a food chain – we just get what could be called a random jumble of life-forms. They're introduced very well – size, Latin name, a brief paragraph and a few even more brief factoids – but I did wonder if the selection was the most winsome. Too often to my mind the book focussed on clumsily-named microscopic things, and not the child-friendly beasties.
Clearly, I am led to assume the illustrator chose the lifeforms, and she has certainly gone some to create lovely images of them all. Everything has a sort of pastel feel, with added hazing from the microscopic creatures being caught in the underwater sunlight. The pages collectively have a definite singular look about them – this is a coffee-table book by any other name, in the guise of a junior non-fiction tome.
But if you have a scientific bent, you wouldn't care for the expressive artwork, however well-crafted it obviously is. The images of microscopic things – what scale enlargement are we talking? Where are the sexy creatures in action that will appeal to the young child browsing this way by chance? Why were these particular instances of life chosen when there are so many to pick from? Why do the two nudibranch artworks look completely different critters? (And, not to let the script department off, why is the prehistoric date presented the wrong way round?)
Still, perhaps to seek the full story from one short book, and one geared at the primary school aged, is missing the point. This won't be an easy way in to an essay or homework project about watery wildlife. It does present, in old-fashioned and scientific ways, a few instances – just a few examples to show variety. The book will, if nothing else, make the reader aware of the great diversity in the scale of our planet's inhabitants, and with some other research and guidance they will begin to get a feel for the goings-on, and the stories, enacted under the waves. Before then, they do have remarkable imagery to please the eye.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
There's perhaps more depth with Oceans in 30 Seconds by Jen Green and Wesley Robins. You might also enjoy Highest Mountain, Deepest Ocean by Kate Baker, Zanna Davidson and Page Tsou. Eleanor Taylor also illustrated The Bloomsbury Nursery Treasury by Patricia Borlengh. We can also recommend Story Path by Kate Baker and Madalena Matoso.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Secrets of the Sea by Kate Baker and Eleanor Taylor at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Secrets of the Sea by Kate Baker and Eleanor Taylor at Amazon.com.
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