Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas

As she did in Living Sunlight and My Light, Bang creates a character out of the sun, this time focusing on its role in the ocean's ecosystems: "My light-energy,/ first caught by phytoplankton,/ flows through/ the ocean's chains of life." Bang creates dimension and visual drama with her use of gold, blues, and black, forming an ethereal habitat for phytoplankton, jellyfish, and bioluminescent creatures. The sense of movement underscores the message about energy transfer between plants and animals. Ages 4-8. (May)

Gr 3-5--Bang and Chisolm have written about the sun before, Bang in My Light (2004) and the pair in Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life (2009, both Scholastic). Here they turn their attention to the ocean and its vast population of phytoplankton--the widespread "meadow" of the sea. The simple text follows the food chain from the tiniest of green plants (powered into life by the sun) to the biggest predators dependent on plankton-gobblers for food. The authors explain photosynthesis and the ocean layer exchange wrought by sunlight-driven currents, and even touch on the life below, where the strongest sunbeam cannot reach. Bang's stylized, dynamic illustrations are a perfect foil for the well-spaced text superimposed upon them. Some will balk at the book's opening statement: "All ocean life depends on me" (the sun), being aware of the strange world of thermal vents, colonized by bacteria capable of converting chemical compounds into food, many existing in a biome with equally unique life-forms that abound in this eerie, dark environment. In the extensive "Notes About This Book" section Bang explains "There are so many important, related concepts that we could not possibly cover them all in this book." However, she does provide much further information on the topics raised in the text, sure to be a boon to classroom teachers, homeschoolers, and puzzled parents alike.--Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY