Ocean sunlight : how tiny plants feed the seas

First Title Value for Searching:

Personal Author:

Bang, Molly

Edition:

1st ed.

Physical Description:

1 v. (unpaged) : col. ill. ; 29 cm.

Summary:

Explains how all life on the Earth depends, directly or indirectly, on light from the sun, and describes how all ocean life, from the tiniest plankton to great whales, including the creatures in the darkest depths, form a web that uses sunshine.

Subject Term:

Photobiology -- Juvenile literature.

Marine life -- Effect of light on -- Juvenile literature

Plants -- Effect of light on -- Juvenile literature.

Sunshine -- Juvenile literature

Additional Credits:

Chisholm, Penny

Audience/Lexile:

770 L

Reading Program:

ACCELERATED READER, INTEREST= GRADES K-4 BOOK LEVEL= 4.5 POINTS= 0.5 SD QUIZ 151862 ENGLISH NON-FICTION.

Publication Information:

New York : Blue Sky Press, 2012.

Subject:

Photobiology -- Juvenile literature.

Marine life -- Effect of light on -- Juvenile literature

Plants -- Effect of light on -- Juvenile literature.

Sunshine -- Juvenile literature

Plants, Effect of light on

SAILS ISBN:

9780545273220

Available:

Library	Shelf Number	Shelf Location	Status
Searching... Pembroke Public Library	J 571.4 BAN	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Acushnet Library	J 571.455 BAN	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Berkley Public Library	J 571.4 BANG	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Carver Public Library	J 571.4 BAN	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Dartmouth - Southworth	J 571.455 BAN	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Dighton Public Library	J 571.4 BAN	1:JTOWNHALL	Searching... Unknown
Searching... East Bridgewater Public Library	571.45 BAN	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Easton - Ames Free Library	JUV 571.455 BANG 2012	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Fairhaven-Millicent	J 572 BAN	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Hanson Public Library	BANG	PICTURE BOOKS	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Holmes Public Library	J 571.4 BAN	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Mansfield Public Library	J 571.4 B	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Middleborough Public Library	J 571.4 BAN	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... New Bedford Casa da Saudade Branch	J 571.455 BAN 2012	CHILDREN FICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Norton Public Library	J 571.4 BAN	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Plainville Public Library	J 571.4 BAN	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Rehoboth - Blanding Free PL	J 571.4 BAN	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Richards Memorial Library	BANG -- (PICT NF)(SCIENCE)	1:JEASYNF	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Somerset Public Library	Y 571.4 BAN 2012	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Swansea Public Library	C 571.4 B	CHILDREN NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Taunton Public Library	J 571.4 B2243O	CHILDRENS ROOM	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Wareham Free Library	JP BAN	PICTURE BOOKS	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Acclaimed Caldecott artist Molly Bang and award-winning scientist Penny Chisholm present a stunning, sweeping view of our ever-changing oceans.In this timely book, acclaimed Caldecott artist Molly Bang and award-winning M.I.T. professor Penny Chisholm use poetic language and dazzling illustrations to introduce the oceanic world. From tiny aquatic plants to the biggest whale or fish, Bang and Chisholm present a moving, living picture of the miraculous balance sustaining each life cycle and food chain deep within our wondrous oceans. On land or in the deep blue sea, we are all connected--and we are all a part of a grand living landscape. Award-winning scientist Penny Chisholm, a leading expert on oceans, packs Ocean Sunlight with clear, simple science, illuminated by Molly Bang's wondrous illustrations. This informative, joyous book will help children understand and celebrate the astonishing role our oceans play in human life.

Reviews (5)

School Library Journal Review

K-Gr 4-Sunlight's role in ocean food chains extends from surface waters to pitch-black depths. The dramatic growth of phytoplankton cascading across a spread is one of many arresting illustrations, large enough for group sharing yet complex enough to study individually. Detailed notes cover topics such as photosynthesis, marine snow, and chemosynthesis. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

As she did in Living Sunlight and My Light, Bang creates a character out of the sun, this time focusing on its role in the ocean's ecosystems: "My light-energy,/ first caught by phytoplankton,/ flows through/ the ocean's chains of life." Bang creates dimension and visual drama with her use of gold, blues, and black, forming an ethereal habitat for phytoplankton, jellyfish, and bioluminescent creatures. The sense of movement underscores the message about energy transfer between plants and animals. Ages 4-8. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Horn Book Review

Although it stands alone well, this book is a companion to Bangs My Light (rev. 5/04) and Bang and Chisholms Living Sunlight (rev. 5/09). The authors bring a fresh perspective to the topic of food chains, focusing here on the critical and voluminous ocean-based plant life -- plankton -- and the transfer of energy and nutrients from the sun to these microscopic plants to ocean animals and back. After a brief overview of food chains and photosynthesis using a more-familiar land-based example, the narrative moves to the ocean. At the surface of the water, sunlight is absorbed by microscopic phytoplankton and eventually transferred to ocean animals through consumption of plankton by those in the shallower layers; for those where light cannot reach, energy is transferred through consumption of the animal and plant remains that drift downward. Energy-filled illustrations use glowing, brilliant colors -- pulsing yellow sunlight hitting an electric blue sea; the delicate green skeletal spikiness of the microscopic plankton -- and also contrast the "marine snow" (the remains of animals and plankton that sink down) with the inky depths where intriguing, transparent red and blue animals reside. These are sophisticated concepts for the target audience, but the authors employ clear and age-appropriate explanations, well-chosen text and visual analogies, and a series of rhetorical questions to excellent effect. Several pages of notes will be included in the final book. danielle j. ford (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Review

An awe-inspiring lesson in photosynthesis goes under the sea. As in this pair's previous Living Sunlight (2009), the sun addresses readers to explain the role of solar energy to support the chain of life--this time in the ocean. A summary of the process of photosynthesis occupies the first few spreads. Warm yellow sunlight suffuses these pages and small insets accompany the textual explanation of how plants make sugar from water and carbon dioxide. Then the focus moves to the sea, first near the surface, where phytoplankton grow and multiply, and then to the depths, where nutrient-rich marine "snow" sifts down to feed creatures who live away from sunlight. The transformation of sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into phytoplankton ("the great invisible pasture of the sea"), on which feed zooplankton and progressively larger animals, is set against background paintings of rich marine blues and greens. The churning and recycling of these nutrients is shown again to be a gift of the sun: "My sunlight powers winds that build great storms and mix the water layers of the seas." Bang's art is richly kinetic, with its whorls and stipples indicating plant and animal life in profusion, from the swirling microscopic creatures to graceful large fish and whales. Readers will want to visit more than once to capture both the science and the abundant sense of celebration here. (Informational picture book. 5-11)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Like its companion books, My Light (2004) and Living Sunlight (2009), this richly illustrated, densely informative picture book is narrated by the sun. The opening pages condense information conveyed in the previous book, explaining how the energy of its light supports life on our planet. Next, this volume goes where few picture books have gone before, introducing children to the ocean's microscopic phytoplankton, the great invisible pasture of the sea, which supplies half the oxygen created on Earth and forms an essential part of the sea's food chains. Moving from decoratively patterned scenes of sunlit trees and grasses into the depths of the ocean, the artwork becomes increasingly varied, intricate, and mysterious. While the opening pages on photosynthesis and food chains attempt to cover too much too quickly, the longer sections on phytoplankton and marine snow are quite successful, helping children understand and visualize vital processes taking place, unseen, within the oceans. In this section Bang's paintings feature precisely delineated images, dramatic juxtaposition of light and dark, and creative use of interconnected pictures within pictures. Best used in conjunction with the previous volumes, this ambitious, beautifully illustrated book offers information seldom covered in science books for young children.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2010 Booklist