Marine Life Books

I was lucky enough to stumble across this book at a book sale in Colorado. It's a great introduction to learning about dolphins and similar cetaceans. There is even a helpful taxonomic chart in the appendix. The book is split into 3 basic sections - 'The Nature of Dolphins', species information, and human impacts on dolphins. You would assume from the "Greenpeace" title that the book would be full of subjective descriptions, but surprisingly they stick to just the biological facts during the first 2 sections of the book. That makes it a great choice as a beginning cetacean biology book for anyone.
The first section teaches about Cetacean evolution, dolphin anatomy (including an anatomy diagram), behavior, echolocation, intelligence/communication, and similar dolphin basics. It also dispels and discusses the real facts about some of the popular romantic myths about their intelligence and social behavior.
The second section gives details about each of the species within the Delphinidae family (dolphins, porpoises, and killer whales) worldwide. Like a field guide, it is split up into different categories based on habitat location. For example, all arctic species are presented in one section, all coastal species are in another section, etc. At least one color picture or sketch is given for each species, along with size and color description, habitat description, and a few paragraphs about what makes that species unique. I found this section of the book the most helpful.
The third section of the book covers the impact that humans have had on dolphins. This is the only section with obvious bias and subjective wording. The book was published in 1990, so a couple of the facts may be a little outdated now, but still helpful to know. Most of the human practices mentioned are still going on and thus still relevant. Some of the pictures in this section are very graphic and might disturb children or adults. This section of the book covers hunting practices around the world, secondary dolphin mortality caused by the fishing industry, U.S. and Soviet military use of dolphins, captivity for entertainment purposes (such as Sea World), and finishes with descriptions of dolphin conservation projects worldwide by Greenpeace and scientists.

I am in the process of considering a career in marine biology, and found this book helpful as a beginning point on my quest to learn about dolphins. The wording is easy to understand, so I think even people with just a casual interest in cetaceans would learn a lot from it. If you can find it, I recommend buying this book for a good overview of dolphins/toothed whales.

As anyone might expect from the Greenpeace stable, the emphasis here is on conservation - and so it should be! Commencing with a chapter headed "What is a Dolphin?", I cannot think of a better way to start any book on any factual subject than by describing precisely what that subject is. So, having left the reader in no doubt as to what this book is all about, we then go from strength to strength as it describes the creature's; Evolution, Family Tree, Anatomy, Behaviour, Swimming, Relations, Intelligence, Echolocation and instances of Stranding. And that's just from part one entitled "The Nature of Dolphins."

From this point onwards, the reader benefits from having just received a great education into these endearing mammals. It is, therefore, with a greater understanding of the creatures in general that we now move on to learn about, All Ocean Species, Artic Species and Northern Ocean Species. It is here we encounter the Pakistan and Yangtze River Dolphins and the even rarer Vaquita from Mexico (to mention but three). Along the way we are taught of man's threat - both deliberate and accidental, and that threat is quite disturbing.

Altogether, this is a book packed with information supported by outstanding colour photography and diagrams. It is a book which brings home a message loud and clear and is one that should be read by anyone who has ever been thrilled by the sight of Dolphin.

NM

As anyone might expect from the Greenpeace stable, the emphasis here is on conservation - and so it should be! Commencing with a chapter headed "What is a Dolphin?", I cannot think of a better way to start any book on any factual subject than by describing precisely what that subject is. So, having left the reader in no doubt as to what this book is all about, we then go from strength to strength as it describes the creature's; Evolution, Family Tree, Anatomy, Behaviour, Swimming, Relations, Intelligence, Echolocation and instances of Stranding. And that's just from part one entitled "The Nature of Dolphins."

From this point onwards, the reader benefits from having just received a great education into these endearing mammals. It is, therefore, with a greater understanding of the creatures in general that we now move on to learn about, All Ocean Species, Artic Species and Northern Ocean Species. It is here we encounter the Pakistan and Yangtze River Dolphins and the even rarer Vaquita from Mexico (to mention but three). Along the way we are taught of man's threat - both deliberate and accidental, and that threat is quite disturbing.

Altogether, this is a book packed with information supported by outstanding colour photography and diagrams. It is a book which brings home a message loud and clear and is one that should be read by anyone who has ever been thrilled by the sight of Dolphin.

NM

Groovy Tube Books are fun and educational. High quality. You won't be disappointed.

This is a fantastic book, game, and toy combination! It includes realistic bugs with their names labeled underneath them. The game fascinates my 3 year old. He not only likes to look and play with the bugs, he also enjoys playing the game and listening to the story. I am going to use it in my classroom with my first graders and am planning on buying it as a Christmas gift.

Three-in-one value: book, toy sea creatures and board game. The book has beautiful photos with very readable and interesting information. The special Fin Facts sections provide bizarre and kid-friendly information about unique sea creatures. An excellent activity and craft section in the back of the book, provides fun and educational ideas. The toy animals are sturdy, realistically colored and are labeled with their name, such as starfish or hammerhead shark. The game board is sturdy and the question cards reinforce facts from the book. My eight year old boy loved the book and the game. Our whole family has enjoyed playing the game several times.

I really enjoyed this book! What makes it even more special is that I got to visit with the author, Andie Weathers, at Christmas time. She graciosly spent the time discussing the whole process of writing and publishing a book. I highly recommend this picture book for any child who wants to learn about sea life and Charleston, South Carolina!...I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a lot from it. I look forward to Andie's next book!

This beautifully illustrated book is an engaging tale about a little hermit crab that travels to various real-life destinations looking for a new shell (because Hermy has outgrown his old shell). Like most children, my kids (ages 8, 6 and 4) love the beach, and they were captivated by the Hermy story and illustrations. The main character is a hermit crab, but the cast of characters includes some other ocean favorites, such as a sand dollar and a sea horse. The lighthouse and shipwreck captured my son's attention. The innovative format includes a map of Hermy's journey, and an informative "Hermy's Beachside Glossary" that answered many questions that my children had. There is also a detailed write-up of the biology of the hermit crab included at the end, which provided enrichment for my 8-year-old and me! My children are avid readers and it is often difficult to find new books that capture their attention---Hermy the Hermit Crab was a welcome, rare find. We have given this book to other kids for a birthay present, and it was a winner.

The book is well written for children of all ages. It is a wonderful lesson about the creatures of the sea. While it captures the true essence of the sea life of the South Carolina coast, it is a book that anyone across the country will enjoy and relate to.

However, it is the incredible illustrations that make the book come to life. The animated creatures appear human-like but do not lose their sea creature-like quality. The vivid colors and attention to detail will capture the attention of the reader (young or old) for hours.

An earlier reviewer was right on target when s/he said "I wish there was a whole series like this one!" This is an extremely difficult subject to find in a format that is accessible to young children. Though we read it to our son when he was 4, some of the text was difficult but at least it was an introduction to a very difficult topic that is so abstract that it's not easily accessible to young children. It continues to be great as a picture book on the topic as children enter early elementary. Most topics can be introduced to even young children, who are naturally fascinated by their world, as long as it is done in a pleasing picture format. But note, the language can still be complex; you may have to edit depending on the child's age and attention span and vocabulary level but it gives you pictures that you can use as a springboard to discuss the fascinating topic of evolution. So there should really be more of these books covering various science topics. As an adult, even I was interested in the ancestors to modern whales. (As an adjunct to the book, there is a computer graphics mini-video at the Smithsonian in Washington DC that animates the evolution of whales from land animals to sea mammals. Seeing the movie first and having this book afterwards was an amazing learning experience.)

This is a simple book which feels more like a storybook than a science book. This suits it very well to the age group it is aiming at. It is a gentle look at evolution, but because it is focused on only one animal, it can give more detail than a general book on evolution of this size. I really wish they had a series of these, each focusing on a different animal. I also liked the artwork and felt it fit well with the tone of the writing. Overall this was a hit in our family, and I often recommend it to others who are looking for evolution books for the preschool set. There are so few books for youngsters about evolution; it is a real shame. Most of us who want to expose our children to this from early on are pretty much stuck using everything that is available, whether it is particularly well done or not. This is a book I would use even if there were an abundance of books to choose from.

I have never seen a better book for explaining evolution basics to children. And this is the kind of thing we need to do a lot more of- getting the younger generations into this fascinating science as early as possible, that they might own the wonder and beauty of evolution.

The book is a bit dated, being eight years old now, as we have discovered numerous fossils since the publishing, where in the book it refers to long segments we still don't know. The Mesonychids are portrayed as pawed rather than hooved in the illustrations. But it doesn't matter- this type of book is so rare, so needed, that even dating doesn't detract from it's groundbreaking presence. And though it comes across as a bit of a "Just So Story", it is an entirely age-appropriate approach. The adult reading this book should simply explain to their children the extra bits that we have learned since it's publication.

The drawings are beautiful enough to entice the pre-reader into wanting to learn more, and hear more. They will be able to see step by step how whales changed. A fourth-grade reader should be able to get through most of this book, and may want to ask their parents for a few of the words they don't understand. But this is also good, for it encourages them to ask more questions about evolution and pursue understanding.

McNulty picked a wonderful example for her book. For a long time, ever since Darwin, evolutionists were made fun of by the Literal Creationists for proposing that whales came from land animals. It seemed like the right idea, but truthfully the evidence was sparse. Yet biologists remained committed to the method, and to expecting the parallels from other organisms to bear out in future fossils. And has happened time after time, when evolution makes predictions, the fossils appear. And today, the Ceteacean fossil line is one of the most articulated and defined fossil lines we know of.

Your child will not only learn about evolution, and learn to love it, but he or she will be prepared to know the basics in defending it, considering evolution as simply a second skin, to be cherished as part of themselves.

New book, even though it was used. Good condition. Took a while to receive.

alternative activities fisheries and productivities activities, the processes and cicle to generated this processes

Philippines has been known for its great tropical underwater lifeforms. Living here is a great opportunity to discover and adapt on its enviromental impacts. Yet, Filipinos scarcely understand and less dessiminated regarding protection on its coastal resources. Until now and still is one habit of Filipinos by doing an illegal way of fishing which we called it Dynamite fishing and/ cyanide fishing. As a citizen, i am very much concerned and depressed which is why i am working with a government agency specialized in managing coastal resources to uplift fisherfolks spirit of conserving our marine life as a source of its living by not over exploiting it. Coastal Resource Management leads fisherfolks to its legal way of fishing as well as giving them information on alternative livehood. Coastal Resource Management is one way of saving our mother earth, abolished poverty and respect God's creation.

This book, though having a publication year of 1980, is still absolutely the best compilation of information about invertebrate animals that are found along the California coast. Many of the animals included in the book have geographic ranges that extend well to the north and the south of California, so this book is useful to anyone who lives, visits, or works along the west coast of North America.

This is not a book of taxonomic keys, like Light's Manual. It is, rather, a book that provides a summary of the biology and ecology of invertebrates of the west coast. The authors provide lists of the best research literature for each animal (up through 1980), as well as photographs and line drawings that show what the animals look like.

This is not a field book, per se, but copies of this book are found on the shelves of most marine biological laboratories in the world, and on the shelves of most invertebrate zoologists who have visited the west coast of the USA.

A professor of mine once said, "That is a 'big boy' book." And, as books on invertebrates go, he is right.

This book is well worth the price!

This book has very nice color pictures of the animals. It is not just a reference book. It has more detail about the Invertebrates (distinctive characters, range, habitat, life history, interactions with other species, economic importance ...etc.) It really fulfills the curiosity of the person who is interested in the marine invertebrates.

Intertidal Invertebrates of California is one of the well written book on the invertebrates that live off the cost of California. The picture of the invertebrates are amazing along with the through explanation of them. If you are a person who wants to know about marine life, you will love this book.

There has never been a book quite like JACK TAR and it couldn't be more welcome. It's a real treasure chest of a book -- sumptuous to look at, a delight to read, and sound in scholarship. It's also a book to enjoy again and again. The authors and designer deserve highest praise.

This book gives an extremely interesting account of the lives of sailors of both the United States and Britain in the age of sailing and steam-powered ships. Through artifacts gathered by nautical antiques collector (and founder of the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia) J. Welles Henderson, we discover what valued most to these men (and a few women) and get a taste of how they passsed their time. An extremely impressive array of images shows their handicrafts (scrimshaw, macramé, etc.), as well as pointing out the dangers and drudgery inherent in the sailors' lives. Topics cover everything from discipline at sea and sailor's misbehavior on shore to acts of piracy and available medical care. Both naval and merchant service experiences are explored. I only wish such a comprehensive volume had been available when I did the research for my novel A Star to Sail By, which features a sailor of the clipper ship era. I would recommend this book to anyone with a love of sea lore and a nostalgia for the age of the great sailing ships.

Welles Henderson started his maritime history collecting as a schoolboy when he invested 50 cents in the USS Constitution, aka Old Ironsides. His first piece was a small anchor, his reward for his contribution to the preservation of this revolutionary war masterpiece. After many years of collecting memorabilia of the sailor's life he started the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, now the Independence Seaport Museum. His intense interest in the shipboard life of Jack Tar comes out in the many illustrations, most in color, many drawn or painted by sailors. Most of these illustrations are of items that he has collected in his world travels. For those interested in the romantic adventures or the dull drudgery of shipboard life in the 19th century this book will be a welcome voyage.

Ancient Rhymes is a beautiful book, based on the wonderful words of Bob Samples and sung by John Denver. Christopher Canyon has done a superb job with the illustrations and it is a wonderful way to bring the songs of John Denver to the next generation.
Thank you Christopher Canyon, Bob Samples and John Denver for this wonderful book

It is a wonderful book and the illustrations are great. We had Christopher Canyon at our school. It also has a CD with it and it is great also.

Deftly adapted and beautifully illustrated by Christopher Canyon, Ancient Rhymes: A Dolphin's Lullaby showcases singer/songwriter John Denver's song "Ancient Rhymes" which he composed in 1991 after the experience of swimming with dolphins. Also available in a hardcover edition (158469064X, $19.95) which includes an accompanying CD and Score, Ancient Rhymes: A Dolphin's Lullaby is confidently recommended to the attention of school and community librarians, and anyone of any age who admires John Denver's music or who has ever wanted to swim with the dolphins themselves!

After his last book focused on terrestial hotspots (Ark of the Broken Covenant (2003)), Professor Kunich has now turned his attention on the extinction of marine life. Starting off with an easy-to-read and informative outline of the marine environment, followed by an analysis of how the current international and national legal frameworks designed to protect it fall short, he once again has brilliantly combined his prior background as a scientist with his current profession of the law. The book is filled with his folksy style of writing and comparison ("The forces that impede the noble parade of failed efforts. . . . are as potent and immutable as those that have conspired tragically for nearly a century to block the Chicago Cubs from a World Series championship.") that make it a joy to read. Devoting the last two chapters to a practical suggestion of how to protect the "marine hotspots" before it is too late, he calls on the United States to take the lead in this endeavor. Let's go!

It's long been known humankind is destroying the oceans, and plenty of titles have surveyed the problem: what makes Killing Our Oceans: Dealing With the Mass Extinction of Marine Life different is an extension of the author's prior analysis of threatened hotspots from land to pockets of ocean life. Here also is a focus on international law and regulations pertaining to the ocean, along with efforts and language of domestic laws of nations with such key marine resources - another differentiation which makes KILLING OUR OCEANS a powerful recommendation not just for college-level science holdings, but collections concerned with international legal applications of social issues. It's this dual legal and science approach which makes for a top pick, here.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Everyone who cares about life on earth has to read this book. We are ruining the only planet we'll ever have, and it's rapidly becoming too late. Kunich explains the way to solve this enormous problem, and he does it with clarity and brilliance. This is the most important book I have ever read!

Leaving the shallows is a fun, creative and imaginative book. Jody first sees Dawn, a humpback dolphin. Later, Dawn becomes ill, and Jody tried to warn the people who were feeding the food, which was making Dawn sick, to stop, but then one of them said that Dawn was hungry anyway. My opinion is that this book is a good story with adventures everywhere. My favourite part is the end because I like mostly happy endings. I recommend readers 7 years old and above . It is a very attractive book.

We want more!!! I have been reading this series to my son Zeke since we accidently discovered the first book while vacationing in Florida. We love it! Everything about dolphins/whales/marine biology is of great interest, and I appreciate how the author ties the tropical/aquatic themes and love of nature in with great moral lessons about understanding where different people are coming from. Many kudos for this series, and is # 10 ready yet??
Lori Lynn

read this series. I read this series two summers ago when my friend loaned them to me. I was sick most of the summer. Even though I was stuck inside, the books took my mind to out on the ocean, and before I knew it, I felt like I was there swimming and learning about dolphins myself.
~MY ONLY confusion about this series is that when I went to buy the series for myself all the books I found had a different author, same story, same cover, but different author on the front cover. All my friend's books say Lucy Daniels one the front as theauthor, but all the books I find online and in stores have Ben M. Baglio written on the front as the author.
~Can someone please explain this to me?