Nonfiction Monday - World Without Fish

Last year I wrote a review of THE STORY OF SALT by Mark Kurlansky. I love Kurlansky's work in children's literature as he possesses great skill in making complex ideas accessible to kids. Heck, his work for adults is just as well-written, clearly conveying history and science in interesting and meaningful ways.

Unlike THE STORY OF SALT and THE COD'S TALE, which are nonfiction picture books aimed at ages 7-10, WORLD WITHOUT FISH weaves a graphic novel throughout the informational text and is geard towards older students, perhaps ages 10-16.

When I picked this book up last year I was looking for resources for teaching about food chains and food webs, but Kurlansky goes well beyond this in his determination to describe the causes and effects of overfishing on marine ecosystems.

In the Introduction Kurlansky writes, "Most stories about the destruction of the planet involve a villan with an evil plot. But this is the story of how the Earth could be destroyed by well-meaning people who fail to solve a problem simply because their calculations are wrong. Most of the fish we commonly eat, most of the fish we know, could be gone in the next fifty years."

Yeah, so this is not a happy story. It carries a heavy dose of doom and gloom, and while this is a scary message, it's one everyone needs to hear. I'll admit that I'm not usually keen on introductions, and this one is a crash course on Darwin, biological classification, the interconnectedness of things living and nonliving in the environment, and more. It does set the stage for the book, but it's a lot to take in at the beginning. The introduction ends with The Story of Kram and Aliat: Part 1, the graphic novel woven through the text. In fact, each chapter ends with a page of the story. These parts follow a young girl, Aliat, and her father, Kram, over a number of decades as the condition of the ocean grows increasingly bleak. Eventually it becomes an orange mess inhabited largely by leatherback turtles and jellyfish.

Following the Introduction there are these chapters:

1. Being a Short Exposition About What Could Happen and How It Would Happen
2. Being the True Story of How Humans Frist Began to Fish and How Fishing Became an Industry
3. Being the Sad, Cautionary Tale of the Orange Roughy
4. Being the Myth of Nature's Bounty and How Scientists Got It Wrong for Many Years
5. Being a Concise History of the Politics of Fish
6. Being an Examination of Why We Can't Simply Stop Fishing
7. Being a Detailed Look at Four Possible Solutions and Why They Alone Won't Work
8. The Best Solution to Overfishing: Sustainable Fishing
9. How Pollution is Killing Fish, Too
10. How Global Warming is Also Killing Fish
11. Time to Wake Up and Smell the Fish

You'll also find a lengthy section of resources and an index, but surprisingly, you won't find any references. Now, Kurlansky did work at one time as a commercial fisherman and has written a number of books on the industry, so he does have firsthand knowledge of the topic. He also thanks a number of biologists in the Acknowledgements at the end of the book, so I know he's talked to the experts. However, given that this is not a nonfiction picture and is targeted to an older group of readers, I think references are a must. 

Now that you know what I perceive to be the main weakness of the book, let me talk for a minute about all Kurlansky and Frank Stockton, the illustrator, do well. First, the text is imminently readable. Kurlansky makes the science understandable, underscores the causes and effects of the problems with many meaningful examples, and uses an arsenal of writer's tools to make the reader want to press on despite the incredibly depressing content. Kurlansky is a terrific storyteller, seamlessly integrating history, science, and politics into a compelling narrative. The text is littered with photographs, illustrations, sidebar pieces, maps, and more. Graphic variations in the font, similar to "SHOUTY CAPITALS" in e-mail correspondence serve to highlight important ideas and keep readers involved with the text. They also serve as natural stopping places to reflect on the gravity of the situation. Every so often reader's run across a full-page illustration that highlights some bit of information on the opposing page. Like the endpapers of the book, they are beautifully rendered and dramatic. Sadly, there are too few for my liking. 

I learned a great many things while reading this book and was reminded of some other things I hadn't thought of for a while. Here are few points that stood out for me.

• The jellyfish is actually a very highly evolved type of plankton. It is the cockroach of the sea, an animal little loved by human beings but particularly well designed for survival (p. 13). (For more on this check out Zooplanton at Marinebio.org.)
• Several times the size of the elephant, the humpback whale is one of the largest mammals on earth—and yet it feeds on one of the tiniest forms of life in the world (p. 42).
• For thousands of years, fishing was sustainable. But nowadays, between 100 and 120 million tons of sea life are killed by fishing every year (p.85).
• Fish prefer colder waters. The warming of the seas is a crisis for fish. If the seas are warming and ice is melting, this means that the melted ice, which is freshwater, will make the seas less salty (pp. 139-140).

As you can see, there is much to learn and ponder here. There is a ray of hope beginning on p. 149 when Kurlansky writes "What can we do about this?" The answer is, quite a bit! What we need to do is educate ourselves about all the ways we can help.

One more thing worth noting and something I appreciated was the inclusion of a quote from Darwin's ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES at the beginning of each chapter, each quote nicely aligned with the overall theme. These quotes give readers just one more thing to chew on. Perhaps some will even be inclined to pick up the book to learn more.

Overall, Kurlansky makes a powerful case here for not only the promise of sustainable fishing, but also its necessity for the health of our planet. RECOMMENDED.

Book: WORLD WITHOUT FISH
Author:  Mark Kurlansky
Illustrator: Frank Stockton
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 192
Grades: 5-12
ISBN: 978-0761156079
Source of Book: Personal copy purchased at a local independent bookstore

This review was written for Nonfiction Monday. Head on over to Jean Little Library and check out all the great posts highlighting nonfiction this week.

Nonfiction Monday - What Can You Do With An Old Red Shoe?

Last week was National Environmental Education Week. Earth Day is a mere two days away. Even though I've been spending the month celebrating poetry, nature and the environment have been much on my mind. Today I'm sharing Anna Alter's green activity book that focuses on reusing household items in creative ways. I've been following the development of What Can You Do With An Old Red Shoe? for quite some time now, as Anna wrote about the stages of development on the Blue Rose Girls blog. In the summer of 2007, Anna began writing about the process of developing the art for the book. She shared how the artwork was created from sketch, to laying down the first washes, adding color, layering pen and ink outlines, more layers of color, and finishing touches. It's a fascinating process to learn about, and one that makes me appreciate even more the work that goes into the creation of a book. Here is an example of the process from sketch to finished illustration.

You can read more about the creation of Jack the bunny at Painting in Progress, where Anna talks specifically about each step and includes additional images of the creation of this illustration.

I mentioned that the posts about the creation of the artwork began in July of 2007. In January of 2008 Anna shared that the artwork was complete, save for the jacket. In July Anna shared images from the proof of her book. By January of 2009, Anna was already working on ideas for a sequel! At long last, on March 31st, the date of official publication arrived. Phew!

Anna's hard work, long hours and persistence paid off, because What Can You Do With An Old Red Shoe? is a wonderful combination of poetry and crafting for kids. Here's how the book begins.

This book is all about the ways in which you can reuse and recycle. Each project introduces an art activity that reuses materials you can find in your home. Some of the activities require the help of an adult.

Reusing is a fun way to reinvent worn items. It's also a great way to help conserve our natural resources (like the trees used to make paper) and create less trash to store in landfills. By finding new ways to use old things instead of throwing them away, we can help to keep the environment clean and healthy. If we share in the responsibility of taking care of our world, we can all enjoy it together!

There are a total of 12 activities for recycling old materials, 8 of which require some form of adult assistance. Materials given new life include a flip-flop, bits of old crayon, a worn blanket, empty tin cans, and more. Each double-page spread begins with a poem. Here's the one from the page that asks "What can you do with bits of old crayon?"

Trina is an artist
who doesn't like to stop.
She's colored the walls in her art room,
the bottom to the top.

The walls are one big canvas
and never look complete.
She's worn out all her crayons—
a great artistic feat.

After this readers will find a list of materials that are needed for the project. In this case Trina gathers:

• Lots of used crayons
• An old metal bowl or pot (used only for crafts)
• An ice cube tray

Next there are illustrated, step-by-step instructions for carrying out the project. The directions are clear, concise and simply written. For this project adult help is needed to heat the oven and to pour the hot, melted crayons into the ice cube trays. This is one of my favorite activities from the book, and one William and I tried over the winter break. The book hadn't been released yet, but Anna wrote about making crayons on her blog, so we decided to try it. The process worked beautifully! Here's a picture of what her finished crayons looked like.
The completed image of Jack the bunny (seen above) can be found on the page with the question "What can you do with a worn blanket?" Here's the poem that begins this activity.

Jack's blanket was stained,
it was damp,
it was done—
a mere ghost of a blanket
made pale from the sun.
The fabric had worn,
a soft gauze to the touch.
Jack gave it a squeeze
for he loved it so much.

Here's what the first half of the spread looks like.
Alter then shows/describes how Jack's worn blanket can be used to create a handkerchief and a patch for his old jeans. Here's what the second half of the spread looks like.
At the end of the book readers will find tips for kids and grown-ups on reuse and recycling. The final page contains information on hand sewing stitches for the projects using the worn blanket and raggedy T-shirt.

Alter has created a terrific web site to support the book at www.oldredshoe.com. You can read about how the book was created, download coloring and activity sheets (under free stuff), and find some fabulous teacher resources and activity ideas for using this book in the classroom.

This book is a terrific choice for simple, creative art projects at home and in this classroom. The materials needed are easily accessible and the steps are not complicated and do not require extraordinary amounts of time to complete. Kids will enjoy giving new life to worn materials and may even dream up their own crafty ideas for old stuff as a result of working through the projects in this book.

I'm crazy about this book, as is my eight-year old. We've had a great deal of fun in the last month trying out the projects. You'll be happy to know that Anna is already hard at work on sequel. The kazoo activity looks like it will be a blast! I hope you check out this book and try some of the activities with your budding artists. You won't be disappointed with the results. Recommended with enthusiasm!

Book: What Can You Do With An Old Red Shoe?
Author: Anna Alter
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 32 pages
Grades: K-5
ISBN: 978-0805082906
Source of Book: Copy received from publisher.

If you've read this far you now have a chance to win a copy of What Can You Do With An Old Red Shoe?. Leave your best recycling craft idea in the comments before midnight tonight. Three lucky winners will be chosen at random on Tuesday morning.

This post was written for Nonfiction Monday. This week our host is Karen at Mommy's Favorite Children's Books. Do stop by and see what others are sharing in the world of nonfiction today.

All images and artwork ©Anna Alter. All rights reserved.

Green Earth Book Award 2008

The winners of the Green Earth Book Award were recently announced. Given by the Newton Marasco Foundation in partnership with Salisbury University, this award recognizes books that inspire children and young adults to appreciate and care for the natural environment.

2008 Winners

Children's Fiction
Winston of Churchill: One Bear’s Battle Against Global Warming
written by Jean Davies Okimoto and illustrated by Jeremiah Trammell

Young Adult Fiction
Chronicles of Faerie: The Light-Bearer’s Daughter
written by O. R. Melling

Nonfiction

The Down to Earth Guide to Global Warming
written by Laurie David and Cambria Gordon

Honor Books

• Adventures of Riley: The Polar Bear Puzzle, written by Amanda Lumry and Laura Hurwitz

• An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming, written by Al Gore and adapted by Jane O’Connor

• On Meadowview Street, written and illustrated by Henry Cole

• The Companions Quartet, Book One: Secrets of the Sirens, written by Julia Golding

• The Sorta Sisters, written by Adrian Fogelin

The most recent issue of Book Links (March 2008) has an article by Fred Chapel, Sharon James, and J. Cynthia McDermott on previous winners of this award.

Book Review - One Well: The Story of Water on Earth

When viewed from space, our home is blue, largely due to the fact that nearly 70% of its surface is covered by water. It is because of this that the Earth is often called "the water planet." Rochelle Strauss' new book, One Well: The Story of Water on Earth, tells the story of our planet's most precious resource. The book begins:

Imagine for a moment that all the water on Earth came from just one well.

This isn't as strange as it sounds. All water on Earth is connected, so there really is just one source of water--one global well--from which we all draw water.

The double page spreads in One Well provide both informational paragraphs and short, factual boxed insets, beginning with the distribution of water on earth, the water cycle, water's essential role in life on Earth and watery habitats. From here, the author looks at how people use, need and access water. The book concludes by looking at demands on the well, pollution, and saving our water.

One Well provides an instructive and often-times inspiring look at water. Inspiring? Absolutely. The author reminds us that the amount of water on Earth hasn't ever changed. Since this water has been around for billions of year, it is entirely possible that the water we drink may have "quenched the thirst of a dinosaur" more than one hundred million years ago.

There is much in this book that kids will connect with. The author has done a superb job using simplified ratios to help make concepts understandable. For example, in describing how much freshwater is available to meet our needs, she writes:

Most of the water on Earth is saltwater--almost 97 percent. Only 3 percent is freshwater. If a tanker truck filled with water represented all the water on Earth, then the water used to fill a large bathtub would represent all of the planet's freshwater.

This is precisely the kind of comparison kids need to put descriptions of such vast quantities in perspective. The author goes on to discuss how over 99 percent of this freshwater is frozen in icecaps and glaciers or otherwise unavailable, and provides an even more startling measurement to represent the freshwater we can actually access for our use.

In looking at access to the well, the author compares the daily water use per person of the residents of North America, Russia, Poland, India, Nepal, Haiti and Ethiopia. We are told that for about 1 billion people on Earth, water is not found within the home, and that for these people, access to the nearest water supply is often a walk of more that 15 minutes.

While much of the material in this book was familiar to me, I did learn many new things such as:

• Both tomatoes and jellyfish are composed of about 95% water.
• Some rainforest organisms live their entire lives in the pools of water trapped by the leaves of the bromeliad.
• In my lifetime, I will drink the equivalent of a backyard swimming pool of water.

The illustrations by Rosemary Woods beautifully support and complement the text. The pastel and colored pencil drawings provide a varied look at water and the range of organisms (including people!) that rely upon it. One young girl, clad in a red shirt and blue shorts, leads readers through each double-page spread.

As the book draws to a close, it might be easy to get discouraged upon realizing the fragility of the resource we depend upon for our very lives. However, the approach of the author is not heavy-handed. A final section on becoming "Well Aware" provides readers with concrete suggestions for ways that they can make a difference. The book concludes with notes to the adults (parents, guardians and teachers) who will read this book with children.

One Well is an outstanding introduction to our most precious resource. It will not only teach readers about the importance of water, but will move them to action in an effort to conserve it. This title is highly recommended.

Book: One Well: The Story of Water on Earth
Author: Rochelle Strauss
Illustrator: Rosemary Woods
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Publication Date: March, 2007
Pages: 32
Grades: 3 and up
ISBN-10: 1553379543
ISBN-13: 978-1553379546
Source of Book: Copy received from Raab Associates, Inc.