3rd, 4th, 5th, Middle School, 6th, 7th, 8th ; Hard Cover, Literary Nonfiction, Nonfiction ; Recommended

Our Blue Planet

The Earth’s “ONE OCEAN” is explored by five bio-zones in this take off from the BBC television show OUR BLUE PLANET. The five bio-zones sections: The Deep, Life in the Lost City, Life in the Balance, Superhero, and Worlds Colliding are explored with the hope the reader will become so enthralled they will join in the fight to protect THE OCEAN which is so important to our existence on this planet.

The five bio-zones are described by area/location, then stories of the life from the zone are shared, followed by inhabitants of the zone beginning with the deepest zone going to the shallowest zone. The author’s use of figurative language makes this more for entertainment than for a reference piece. “In the MIDNIGHT ZONE there are creatures that wouldn’t be out of place in your nightmares…” ( 6). The text in each section goes from giant titles, to regular size 12-ish print, to size 8-ish print. The smaller the font the more specific the information.

There is no Index or Glossary to help with animal and plant names in bold set type through out the book. The world map on pages 3-4 shows seven specific locations marked with a red dot, but only six of them are mentioned by name within the book. If I were the red dot for the ‘Mariana Trench’ I would feel slighted because its name could so easily have been mentioned in the section “THE DEEP”.

Submitted by Mary Pong