A Science Book About The Ocean For Younger Readers

You want to know a great rainy day activity? Visiting a bookstore when it's hosting an author. You may run into a friend. You may meet an author from your general area who you have not met before. You may get exposed to a lovely picture book.

All that happened yesterday, when I heard Jenna Grodzicki read from her new picture book, I See Sea Food, Sea Creatures That Look Like Food at the River Bend Book Shop. This is a nonfiction work with a great premise. There are ocean animals that look like food we eat. Food that's not, you know, seafood.

In addition to the clever premise--illustrating, by the way, that nonfiction can be clever and not just...nonfiction--the book is written with material simple enough to be read aloud to younger preschool readers. Then there are the blocks of facts for the older self-readers who like that kind of thing. And they are out there.

The book is illustrated with lovely photographs, not drawings. Not that there's anything wrong with drawings. But the photographs give readers a feeling that this is science, and this stuff is real. Because it is.

I was hopeful that I Sea Sea Food would make a good gift for a young family member who has has an interest in the ocean. Because of the way the content is directed at two reading levels, it should be a hit. I'm happy with my purchase already.