Under the Sea, Three Books You Should See

Well, it may officially be fall here in the Midwest, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about water and the ocean.

I love the ocean. I love water. I grew up on Lake Michigan and have gone in swimming soon after the last of the ice was gone for the season. Throughout my youth, we played in the waves and tooled around on little boats, fished, and watched many sunsets. Sadly, I never took the love of water any further than being able to swim and spend time there.

I remember the first time I swam in the ocean, I was afraid to get off the raft because I could see these strange creatures lying around on the bottom. (Sea cucumbers and starfish) I was stunned when I held a starfish and it suctioned itself to my hand at my aunt and uncle's cabin outside Seattle, Washington.

The next time I was in the ocean, I was quite a bit older and in Hawaii. Everything is so blue there. From shore, we watched dolphins leaping and jumping. I saw humpback whales and sea turtles. I was truly in love and awe of what the ocean had to offer. We went on whale watches, I read books, I listened to everything that anyone had to tell me about ocean life. That was vacation time, then I would go back to the reality of living in the Midwestern cornfields with the closest large body of water 65 miles away. That doesn't sound very far, but when you have a job and family obligations, it takes planning to spend a day at the beach.

The most recent body of water I spent my time in was the Kishwaukee River. We had a great time, but my knees didn't even get wet. We saw frogs and polliwogs, minnows, mussels, macro invertebrates, and damselflies landed on my arm. There is so much to see and learn about in any water.

When I can't be in the water, it's fun to read about it. Here are three titles that take you deep into the sea with courageous people who changed our understanding of the ocean.

She fell in love at the aquarium. With the sharks. She was told this wasn't a career for a woman. She didn't care. Her love of sharks, drove her toward her passion. This beautiful picture book biography by Jess Keating about Eugenie Clark offers an overview of her life as well as a look into the lives of sharks. She started the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida. Don't miss the authors notes and added information at the end of the book. You can also check out the article about her from the Mote Aquarium.

I discovered this book at the library recently. It is quite a story or two courageous men who wanted to discover what was deep in the ocean. When they met, they worked together to find a way to see the deep blue sea. As I read the story of the bathysphere going deeper and deeper in the ocean, my heart rate went up, and I felt the thrill and fear of this dangerous journey. Exhilarating and scary. Be sure to read the author and illustrator notes to learn mire about their research in creating this wonderful book.

Even with the Bathysphere, the world deep in the ocean is remains largely uncharted territory.

Since 1964, Alvin began making dives and more and more discoveries in the ocean. Michelle Cusolito takes you on a day trip down in Alvin a deep sea submersible. Her simple text reads like a poem and her use of onomatopoeia bring the sounds of the journey to life. Nicole Long's illustrations are beautiful and full of detail. The back matter provides details bout the author and illustrator's journey to create their book, facts about Alvin, a glossary, and details about the organisms seen on the trek to the bottom of the sea. Such a lovely book taking us to a world within our world.

As an additional note, these books were written and illustrated by women. It is wonderful to see more and more children's literature being published by women. 

Chicago, Lighthouses, Black Book of Color

I went to Chicago for an evening of wandering and photography with a friend recently. She wanted to see the gardens and do night photography and I wanted to see the Lighthouse exhibit and ride the water taxi. We did it all. Lucky for us, there are very nice gardens right on the Magnificent Mile.

If you haven't taken the Water Taxi on the Chicago River, I highly recommend it. The Water Taxi is less than a block walk from both train stations and for under $10, you can ride up and down the river between Michigan Ave and Chinatown all day.

Just look at the gardens that separate the sidewalk from the busy street on the Magnificent Mile. So man colors, beauty, and nature within the concrete jungle.

      

An artist friend shared his journey in creating a lighthouse that would stand on Chicago's Magnificent mile. Rich Green spent three years preparing for this project to support Chicago Lighthouse. This social service organization supports people who are blind, visually impaired, disabled, and veterans.

The lighthouse exhibit is a call to action for access and inclusion of people with disabilities. They will be on the Mag Mile until August 11th. After that, each lighthouse will be auctioned off. (Hey, you could have one in your yard!)

By Rich Green in front of the Disney Store

We walked a few blocks before we came to Rich's lighthouse. One the way we saw many of the lighthouses on display. The first one we encountered:

This lighthouse and the weavings were made by people who are disabled, blind or visually impaired. Seriously! I am so impressed with the colors, the even weaving, and the fun wrapped up feeling. This piece really made me think about the exhibit as a whole. There is so much color on all of the lighthouses. It is a reminder that I am very fortunate to be able to see and process colors. It also means that I need to use my best descriptions to make this post and the images understandable and enjoyable to people who are not able to see. It reminds me that life is about using all of our senses to understand the world around us.

One of my favorite books is The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin and Rosana Faria.

The book talks about colors in nature through the senses of someone who can't see. He describes each color based on the way things of those colors taste, smell, sound, and feel using simple descriptive language. This is a wonderful book to share with children to help them understand visual disabilities.

Below are more of the lighthouse that we saw on our outing. Take a look on the lighthouses on the magmile website to see more lighthouse and learn about the artists.

You can checkout a very nice video from Sunday Morning on CBS at this link.

Below are a few more photos of the lighthouses we saw.

I got lucky with the man on the left color coordinating his outfit to this lighthouse.

 

I see you.

If you have the chance to visit Chicago between now and August 11th, be sure to look for all the lighthouses. Appreciate all that you can do and see. Appreciate all that others can do as well.

I mentioned that we also wanted to see the night lights of Chicago. Here are a few photos. Even at night the City is full of colors and light.

Crown Park

 

Nighttime in Chicago. The train passes, people play in the water and lighted carriage rides travel under the Millennium Park Bridge.

Millennium Park Bridge

Cloud Gate aka The Bean

Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

The easiest way to get me to pick up a book is to tell me it is about nature and animals. The school year is over, and I have more time to dedicate to reading, thinking, and recommending. My first out-of-school book was Wishtree by Katherine Applegate.

Wishtree is written from the point of view of a Red Oak named Red who is 216 rings old. Red is proud of its heritage. Proud to be a home to so many animals. Red has a friend, a crow named Bongo. The tree looks out at two homes. Two families. One new family. One girl who has a wish to find a friend. It's not so easy. Not everyone wants this new family in town. Red has been the wishtree in the neighborhood for many human generations. Throughout, Red remained quiet, but now. . . .

After finishing this book, my first thought was that this would be a great book for teachers to read to their classes at the beginning of the school year. Then, I thought kids shouldn't wait. Parents should read this book with their kids and they should talk about it, and in the fall the kids should read it to their teachers and they should all take action.

While I was writing this review, an article shared among my writing groups about discussing the need for books to have lessons for a child to absorb and learn from. This really got me thinking about what I was writing about this book. It was sounding like a lesson plan for teachers and parents. Yikes!

One of the main reasons I became a librarian was to make reading fun, not lesson-filled and curriculum based. In this past year as a school librarian, I enjoyed sharing small lessons, but mostly, they were lessons encouraging curiosity and imagination  I tried not to even talk about that unless it came up in conversation with the kids.

Wishtree is a book filled with lesson opportunities:
Caring for Nature
Caring for others (Empathy)
Strength in numbers
Tolerance
Kindness
Friendship
and religious freedom all come to mind.

The thing is that when we try to push our agenda and lessons on kids, I believe that they are more likely to push back and test out the opposite. We can also ruin a perfectly lovely story because it is no longer about the story, it's about the lesson.

I watched 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders play tag football all school year. On occasion, a disagreement that was leading toward a fight would break out. I had to step in. We talked and I allowed them to find resolution to the problem. They had the skills. I didn't have to teach them anything except at the moment calming down enough to begin thinking again. There were also times one of those same kids would get hurt during the game. The other kids stopped playing and wanted to take care of their friend. They know empathy. I believe they learned this through their life experiences more than through the lessons that have been imparted upon them ad nauseam. When they are hurt, they want to be cared for, they can turn that around and know that they need to also care for others.

What I guess I am trying to say is that books may have lessons. I think they help to make these emotions and feelings more concrete, but we don't always need to hit everyone over the head and make them list the lessons they are learning.

I loved the Wishtree. It is a beautifully written story. I wanted to sit under red at night and watch the animals who lived there. I trust that the lessons within the book will shine for kids. It will come out in small ways, like when they stop a game to help someone who is hurt, they see worms in a new light, they take a moment to hug a tree, or befriend a person who is not just like them.

Letting lessons and learning happen organically, is so much more fun for everyone. After reading the book, if a child talks about nature and wants to know more, then offer up the idea of starting a nature journal. If a child wants to understand about a different religion run to the library and get books on the topic and have conversations. Don't be afraid if you don't have all the answers. Use your lack of knowledge as an opportunity to learn something new together. Learning new things because you are interested will take you down rabbit holes, up into the trees, and across the universe while at the same time you will build positive relationships with children.