See What a Seal Can Do (Read and Wonder) - Hardcover

Butterworth, Chris

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0763665746 ISBN 13: 9780763665746

Publisher: Candlewick, 2013

Synopsis

Follow a gray seal on a journey from sand to sea in an engaging, richly illustrated story with surefire kid appeal.

On the shore, a seal looks like a slow, dozy creature that spends its time lazing around or flumping along the sand. But underwater, it’s a different story. Splash! Seal dives deep, with a body just the right shape to shoot through the water and power down with his back flippers. He slips through a seaweed forest, and — sensing a predator nearby — dives even deeper to stay safe. Finally it’s time to make a sudden twist and turn to catch his fishy dinner. Merging a lyrical narrative sprinkled with fascinating facts and aww-inspiring illustrations, here is one nature adventure that’s hard to resist.
Back matter includes an index.

About this title

About the Author

Chris Butterworth is the author of more than seventy nonfiction books for children, including Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea and How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? The Story of Food. She lives in England.

Kate Nelms graduated from the University of the West of England with a BA in illustration. See What a Seal Can Do is her first book. She lives in England.

From School Library Journal

K-Gr 2–A curious gray seal peers out from the cover, seeming to invite readers into its underwater world. Once inside, the book begins and ends with seals napping on the rocks. This sedentary behavior, the only one visible to earth-bound humans, gives these sea mammals a “lazy” reputation. In fact, as the illustrations go on to show, the seal is anything but. Once below the ocean's surface, the creature's streamlined body and adaptive features (which are described and explained) make it a master predator. The poetic text is full of alliteration, onomatopoeia, and vocabulary that will delight readers. (“A flump is a flop and a jump both together.”) Sentences in smaller type act as captions and add further detail, as do the illustrations on the endpapers and the information on the verso of the title page. The beautifully colored, full-spread illustrations portray the seal's transformation from awkward land dweller to sinuous and powerful denizen of the deep. The below-water scenes masterfully evoke the murky ocean habitat and the singular seal's steep descent to the bottom. From the irresistible cover to the closing “super-swimming underwater wonder,” the book will encourage readers to dive right in and see what a seal can do.–Carol S. Surges, formerly at Longfellow Middle School, Wauwatosa, WIα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Edition details

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0763665746
• ISBN 13: 9780763665746
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Nelms Kate