worldlibraries's review against another edition
5.0
What a talent!
This is the first Jason Chin book I have ever read. I would buy every single book he creates based on this book. The premise for this book is so clever. A girl goes to the New York Public Library to research her topic: coral reefs. She pulls this exact book of the shelf. The books also shown on the shelf are famous reads about the sea. Examples include, The Voyage of the Beagle, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Endurance, The Odyssey, and Treasure Island. As the student walks by the shelf, she passes the books of importance to understanding the future: The Carbon Crisis, Fossil Fuels, and Rising Seas. As she delves into the book, the coral reefs themselves surround her and come alive.
I loved the reverence this book paid to the inquiry process, libraries, to New York Public Library in particular, the ability of a book to take you to worlds far away, and to teach you things one is unlikely to learn without them.
I did not know that coral reefs are the underwater cities of the ocean. I did not know that there are vast expanses of ocean where life doesn't thrive, hence. I didn't know that corals eat plankton, using their tentacles to catch the plankton so they can eat it. Heck, I didn't even know Belize had a coral reef!
This book is particularly superb at giving an overview of how a coral reef's real estate is laid out, from shoreline, to lagoon, to reef wall. It also excels at showing the complex relationships of animals that inhabit the reef and how they benefit from the coral. Surprisingly, naming and introducing the different types of coral isn't part of the book. This is more of a 'city-wide' overview of the coral reef and some of the individual animal inhabitants without a description and naming of the individual 'buildings' that exist on a coral reef.
Lastly, Jason Chin, shows each reader the concrete steps they can do to save coral reefs without waiting for anyone else. Even a landlubber far from a coral reef will finish this book knowing that they too can contribute to preserving this wonder.
Recommended for 4th grade-adult.
This is the first Jason Chin book I have ever read. I would buy every single book he creates based on this book. The premise for this book is so clever. A girl goes to the New York Public Library to research her topic: coral reefs. She pulls this exact book of the shelf. The books also shown on the shelf are famous reads about the sea. Examples include, The Voyage of the Beagle, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Endurance, The Odyssey, and Treasure Island. As the student walks by the shelf, she passes the books of importance to understanding the future: The Carbon Crisis, Fossil Fuels, and Rising Seas. As she delves into the book, the coral reefs themselves surround her and come alive.
I loved the reverence this book paid to the inquiry process, libraries, to New York Public Library in particular, the ability of a book to take you to worlds far away, and to teach you things one is unlikely to learn without them.
I did not know that coral reefs are the underwater cities of the ocean. I did not know that there are vast expanses of ocean where life doesn't thrive, hence. I didn't know that corals eat plankton, using their tentacles to catch the plankton so they can eat it. Heck, I didn't even know Belize had a coral reef!
This book is particularly superb at giving an overview of how a coral reef's real estate is laid out, from shoreline, to lagoon, to reef wall. It also excels at showing the complex relationships of animals that inhabit the reef and how they benefit from the coral. Surprisingly, naming and introducing the different types of coral isn't part of the book. This is more of a 'city-wide' overview of the coral reef and some of the individual animal inhabitants without a description and naming of the individual 'buildings' that exist on a coral reef.
Lastly, Jason Chin, shows each reader the concrete steps they can do to save coral reefs without waiting for anyone else. Even a landlubber far from a coral reef will finish this book knowing that they too can contribute to preserving this wonder.
Recommended for 4th grade-adult.
oneangrylibrarian's review against another edition
2.0
This book was merely okay to me. I enjoyed the pictures very much but in terms of being and informative nonfiction work, it fell very flat. The writing is factual (as it should be) but was so overly dry. By reading the afterword, it was obvious that the author was passionate or at least interested but it did not capture me while I was reading the book. It is a great introductory piece for nonfiction but it simply left me wanting more and wishing for some passion in the subject.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
4.0
I liked Redwoods better, but this was still good. And the writing was good and informative. But the art was so clever and engaging, it almost didn't need any words. And hey, I liked the self-referential bit of this book being in the book floating in the water with the girl at the library.
optimaggie's review against another edition
4.0
This book is absolutely gorgeous and once again I love how Jason Chin shows the "real world" with the imagined world of the book within the book. It is also a great informational resource. The only reason I gave the book 4 instead of 5 stars is that the text itself falls a little flat, he doesn't make the book very fun to read. I did my best to read it in an engaging way but despite the stunning illustrations and my son's strong interest in coral reefs I could still feel his interest fading (and the kid has an excellent attention span for being read to).
readingthroughtheages's review against another edition
3.0
What I love about Jason Chin books is his ability to tell a story and facts at once. In this book he gives many facts about coral reefs - information about coral reefs, how they live, what lives near them, who uses them for survival. The information can be a little dry. But Jason Chin "jazzes" it up by having another story within his illustrations. There is a young girl reading this information from her book when all of a sudden she is swallowed up by the sea and now she sees the same information from her book.
abigailbat's review against another edition
3.0
Using the same style as his previous nonfiction book, REDWOODS, Jason Chin presents information about coral reefs. The strength of this book is in the beautiful illustrations - as the young protagonist gets more and more engrossed in a book about coral reefs, the reef appears all around her until she's swimming through the ocean, checking out all the animals. The large blocks of text may turn off browsing readers, though the book does include enough information for reports. While the format was innovative in REDWOODS, I'm suffering from some been-there-done-that syndrome with this title.
jillcd's review against another edition
5.0
Loved the story-line, illustrations, mini facts, and how it was arced into a story. Great book for those interested in coral reefs.
calistareads's review against another edition
4.0
This was so well done. A girl is looking at this book in the library about the coral reefs. As she is reading it, her imagination takes over and all these facts about the ocean begin to appear and the room fills with water and she and her book are swimming all over the ocean. We learn about fish cities, the coral reefs and how they house most of the life in the ocean. This book is packed with facts and we see how it all looks in the head of the girl.
I like that when she is done, she is wet on the steps of the library and all the kids want to read the book for the experience. It’s a wonderful blend of whimsy and how coral reefs work. It’s a great way to tell a serious story.
The nephew was even interested in this story. He thought it would be cool if the library filled with water like that. I said it would ruin all the books and he looked at me and said it’s all pretend, silly. He would like to go scuba diving someday. He gave this 4 stars. He thought the sharks were a bit scary.
I like that when she is done, she is wet on the steps of the library and all the kids want to read the book for the experience. It’s a wonderful blend of whimsy and how coral reefs work. It’s a great way to tell a serious story.
The nephew was even interested in this story. He thought it would be cool if the library filled with water like that. I said it would ruin all the books and he looked at me and said it’s all pretend, silly. He would like to go scuba diving someday. He gave this 4 stars. He thought the sharks were a bit scary.
benedorm's review against another edition
4.0
This is a hard book to review -- hard even for me to form an opinion about. I think the number one thing it calls to my attention is that it's very, very hard to both write and illustrate a children's book.
It's not that it can't be done -- the solo works of Dr. Seuss, Lillian Hoban, and Eric Carle, just to name a few, show that a singular vision can produce books of breathtaking imagination and beauty. But far too often, someone who tries to handle both creative parts simply proves that he or she is much better at one than the other. That's unfortunately the case with this book.
Jason Chin is a stunningly impressive artist. His detailed, textured watercolors are beautiful to look at, and do honor and justice to his aquatic subjects. Additionally, in this volume, the pictures tell a story -- a story of a young girl who goes to the library, selects this very same book about coral reefs, and, as she reads, is transported beneath the waves to see and imagine the creatures that live there. It's elegantly done, and I took real joy in the art.
The prose -- ah, the prose is the problem. It's dreadfully clunky, oddly repetitious, and inconsistent in the reading level of its vocabulary. It doesn't even hit the Bobbie Kalman level of workmanlike competence. Other reviewers have complained about the didacticism, and I found that irritating too, but it's not just that it's didactic -- it's that it lacks smoothness and grace.
I give it four stars, because I think the art is more good than the prose is bad. I'd love to see a book such as this win an award like the Caldecott. But it isn't a classic because of the text, and that's a real shame. In the future, I'd love to see Chin collaborate with a writer, and see if his next work couldn't reach that rarified status.
It's not that it can't be done -- the solo works of Dr. Seuss, Lillian Hoban, and Eric Carle, just to name a few, show that a singular vision can produce books of breathtaking imagination and beauty. But far too often, someone who tries to handle both creative parts simply proves that he or she is much better at one than the other. That's unfortunately the case with this book.
Jason Chin is a stunningly impressive artist. His detailed, textured watercolors are beautiful to look at, and do honor and justice to his aquatic subjects. Additionally, in this volume, the pictures tell a story -- a story of a young girl who goes to the library, selects this very same book about coral reefs, and, as she reads, is transported beneath the waves to see and imagine the creatures that live there. It's elegantly done, and I took real joy in the art.
The prose -- ah, the prose is the problem. It's dreadfully clunky, oddly repetitious, and inconsistent in the reading level of its vocabulary. It doesn't even hit the Bobbie Kalman level of workmanlike competence. Other reviewers have complained about the didacticism, and I found that irritating too, but it's not just that it's didactic -- it's that it lacks smoothness and grace.
I give it four stars, because I think the art is more good than the prose is bad. I'd love to see a book such as this win an award like the Caldecott. But it isn't a classic because of the text, and that's a real shame. In the future, I'd love to see Chin collaborate with a writer, and see if his next work couldn't reach that rarified status.