Ocean Wonders : The Children's Guide to the Amazing World of Sea Animals (Creature Combo Collection) by Tim Babler

Ocean Wonders : The Children's Guide to the Amazing World of Sea Animals (Creature Combo Collection) Reviews

• 
  J

  When I started off reading this book I was rather quite pleased with it in its original presentation. As stated the book has wonderfully done photographs for illustrations although combined with a bit of a cartoonish mix (there is one questionable seeming jellyfish that adults may pick up on as being slightly indecent) for the trivia pages.
  
  But then I got into reading the book. Ocean Wondersdoesn't tackle all of the ocean but instead focuses on five different generic species thus never providing the specimens that are being shown to the reader. As mentioned by a previous reviewer the sections are rather lengthy thus the book could have easily been made into separate books that heavily focus on the animal subject like it does here without bouncing off to another species but otherwise I feel the selection was pretty decent: Jellyfish, Porpoises, Seahorses, Sea Urchins and Pufferfish in at least giving the reader a mix of some of the more interesting yet lesser-known creatures like the porpoise and sea urchins along with a combination of much more well-known species.
  
  The writing is a bit more advanced for younger readers and as such they may need to have some assistance in either pronunciation for concepts such as planulae and bioluminescent. In other cases there are some grammar errors while there is mention of Greek that isn't capitalized properly for those who are picky about having a well-edited book for children.
  
  And my last complaint is with the same photographs that I was excited about at the start of the book. Unfortunately the author and/or editor didn't take the time to fact check their information thus leading to the reader finding the beluga appearing in the majority of porpoise photographs, which they aren't as well as at least one anemone as a sea urchin. As a result even though some of the basic trivia is more or less decent to share, the book itself becomes a less reliable source as a fact that so many of us are visual partakers of knowledge.
  
  Furthermore there are two photographs that are questionable as they show a mass stranding of jellies while there is also in the porpoise section to show off the teeth of such animal a photograph of a dead porpoise on the beach with peeling skin from the skull and blood-like liquid gathered around the back teeth.
  
  So unfortunately this book does have promise whether it stays in a compiled form or as single books but to reach its best potential it does need a re-do that allows the mistakes to be corrected both factually, grammatically and photographically.
  
  
• 
  Jamie Bee

  Visually Beautiful, Otherwise Lightweight with Language Errors
  
  The best aspect of this book is the full-color, beautiful photographs of the sea animals featured. Despite the book’s length, they discuss only five sea creatures: jellyfish, porpoises, pufferfish, seahorses, and sea urchins. To me, since each animal’s section is so long, giving each their own book rather than having a seemingly random combination of just a handful of sea animals would have been better. The small number of ocean animals discussed in the book makes it feel lightweight and insubstantial, especially for a book touted as a “guide to the amazing world of sea animals.” I also thought one image meant to show the porpoise’s spade-shaped teeth could be very disturbing to children. The porpoise’s head looked very battle scarred with healed gashes, and the lower part of its front lower jaw was rubbed clean of any skin, exposing bone. I saw more than one error in grammar, punctuation, and usage, which I never like to see in a children's book. Children are such sponges who learn from everywhere, especially books like this, that they should be 100% error-free. Sometimes the vocabulary seems a bit high level for a children's book, like the use of the term zooplankton to describe jellyfish, but most of the book is written in a simple, easy-to-understand style. As I dislike children's books that have language errors, I do not feel like I can recommend this book.
  
  I received a free digital copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.