Down Down Down

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jenkins, S. Down, down, down, a journey to the bottom of the sea. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2009.

ISBN 9780618966363

2. Evaluation

Jenkins really does a fantastic job creating a visually attractive, interesting, and informative book about the creatures of the sea from top to bottom. Each page is in full color and includes beautiful paper art, a condensed 2-3 paragraph informational block of text, and a scale on the right edge which lets the reader visualize where the inhabitance of each seal level live in relation to others (which I LOVED).

Jenkins’ research is based on several books, BBC presentations, and university websites. He includes more information about each of the creatures featured in his book in a glossary located in the back.

3. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

“In this plunge into the deep, Jenkins displays his usual keen awareness of what is fascinating about biology and imparts it without sensationalism—the facts speak for themselves. Light becomes an impossibility only a tiny fraction of the way down into the ocean, and the deeper this book goes, the darker the palette and the scarier and stranger the beast encountered. Sophisticated cut- and torn-paper collage-work fit the alien qualities of the subjects well; it’s equally at home capturing the tiered needlepoints of lizardfish teeth as it is delivering an impressive and illuminating display of bioluminescence. The scale of just how staggeringly deep the ocean is, and how little we know of much beyond what happens at the surface, is conveyed by sidebars on each page that drop precipitously from sea level to the ocean floor many miles below. Thorough endnotes give greater detail on each of the featured creatures and help make this a most welcome introduction to the sometimes-surprising world of marine biology. Grades 2-4. --Ian Chipman”

-          Booklist

Caldecott Honor

4. CONNECTIONS

A lesson that I would suggest to go along with this book would be to have the students research a sea creature and create factual poetry based on their research rather than a paper. I think that would be an experience that the students may not have had before. As an option, you could also have the students create paper art of their animals to accompany the poetry as well.