Hidden World Ocean is a beautifully illustrated, sturdy lift-the-flap book which introduces children to thirty six different sea dwelling creatures. It’s a colourful introduction to sea life which includes many different species including sharks, octopuses, various fish and crabs.
The book is split into six sections which include the biggest animals on the planet, creatures that live on the ocean floor and creatures that use camouflage. Each double spread introduces six different creatures and the reader can lift the flap to discover an interesting fact about each one.
We’ve learnt so many amazing facts from Hidden World Ocean, we were particularly fascinated by the spots on the butterfly fish and the way that the mimic octopus behaves. We learnt how various sea creatures camouflage themselves and how others react when threatened. The spread showing creatures living in the Deep Sea particularly interested us and explained how different creatures light up their way in the dark.
Stephanie Fizer-Coleman’s illustrations are absolutely beautiful. Each spread is colour co-ordinated to its theme, dark blue for Deep Sea contrasts with the Colourful Creatures spread.
We particularly liked the illustrations of the seahorses and thought that the sea dragon was especially cute. It was interesting to see several different kinds of octopus and crab and we were amazed to read that there are over 3000 different species of sea slug. Many of the creatures are accompanied by numerical facts pertaining to size, number of teeth or how many live together, this really is in interesting first non fiction book.
Hidden World Ocean would be a great book to use as part of a classroom topic on the sea. Children could be encouraged to find out their own facts about one of the creatures in the book to include in a class book. The book could also inspire a classroom wall display. With its bite sized chunks of information it’s also a great book for beginner or reluctant readers who may be intimidated by a lot of text on a page.
Author: Libby Walden / Illustrator: Stephanie Fizer-Coleman
Thank you to Little Tiger Press for sending Hidden World: Ocean, we have all learnt new facts from the book.
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