Blog #15 Somewhere in the Ocean

Somewhere in the Ocean

Written by Jennifer Ward and T.J. Marsh
Illustrated by Kenneth J. Spengler
Rising Moon
2000

Fantasy

          I chose this book because the cover art was so vibrant and eye-catching. In this book, the reader travels through the ocean to see the abundance of the varied animal life living in the ocean. The book depicts the animals in number groups starting from one and going through ten. Each animal group consists of a parent and his/her offspring. The parent tells the baby animal/animals to do an action that is related to that animal, and the baby/babies reply with an action sentence. For example, the mother octopus says, “Squirt!” and the baby octopi say, “We squirt!”

          The illustrations in this book are gouache on watercolor paper. Every scene of the book is a double paged spread depicting the certain animal being described in its habitat in the ocean. The medium used allows for dense vibrant colors that almost swim off the page toward the reader. The use of color and exacting detail provide a visual experience for readers and listeners alike. The swirling brush strokes of the background reflect the rolling motion of the sea and draw the eye across the page with the images of the various animals. 

          This is an excellent book for younger elementary students, primarily kindergarten and first graders. However, teachers could use this book in second grade and have the students use the reference guide in the back of the book as a starting point for class presentations on different animals found in the ocean. In kindergarten particularly this would be an excellent integrated language arts lesson involving math. In first grade, the students could be given sentence stems for eleven and have to write a sentence about an animal in the ocean that correlates with that number. This book has an abundance of activities that could be used with it. It would definitely be an asset in the classroom!

Below is a video that can be used in the classroom to increase fluency using this book as a basis. The teacher would need to track the words as the students sing along.