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How the Sea Came to Be: And All the Creatures In It (Spectacular STEAM for Curious Readers
A lyrical, spectacular history of the ocean—from its dramatic evolutionary past to its marvelously biodiverse present.
“For millions of years these first bits of life
Became more, and then more, and then more.”
Long, long ago, when the Earth was young and new, the world was a fiery place. Volcanoes exploded from deep down below, and steamy, hot clouds rose up high. Rain poured down for thousands of years, filling the world’s very first oceans. There the teeniest stirrings of life began. Earth’s creatures grew bigger and bigger, evolving into exciting forms like jellyfish, coral, and worms. Millions of years passed. Down in the depths and up on the surface, ocean life grew and spread. Now the sea teems with all kinds of animals—squid, turtles, dolphins, barracudas, even glowing fish, all living in the waters where long, long ago, life itself came to be.
Spanning 4.5 billion years of evolution, this extensively researched book is an accessible introduction to geology, oceanography, and marine biology. Entrancing verse, awe-inspiring art, and fascinating back matter capture the mysterious beauty of the ocean and the incredible organisms who call it home.
“For millions of years these first bits of life
Became more, and then more, and then more.”
Long, long ago, when the Earth was young and new, the world was a fiery place. Volcanoes exploded from deep down below, and steamy, hot clouds rose up high. Rain poured down for thousands of years, filling the world’s very first oceans. There the teeniest stirrings of life began. Earth’s creatures grew bigger and bigger, evolving into exciting forms like jellyfish, coral, and worms. Millions of years passed. Down in the depths and up on the surface, ocean life grew and spread. Now the sea teems with all kinds of animals—squid, turtles, dolphins, barracudas, even glowing fish, all living in the waters where long, long ago, life itself came to be.
Spanning 4.5 billion years of evolution, this extensively researched book is an accessible introduction to geology, oceanography, and marine biology. Entrancing verse, awe-inspiring art, and fascinating back matter capture the mysterious beauty of the ocean and the incredible organisms who call it home.
56 pages, Hardcover
First published April 25, 2023
4 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Berne
16 books20 followersJennifer Berne is an acclaimed children's author whose books include On a Beam of Light, Manfish, On Wings of Words (all Chronicle), and Look Up with Me (Katherine Tegen Books). Jennifer lives in Columbia County, New York, and spends her summers sailing along the coast of Maine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
September 10, 2023
This is an exceptionally good science book for children interested in science, natural history, and especially the ocean.
The information provided is wonderful and as thorough as could be expected from a picture book. In fact, the book is dense with information. There is an informative and engaging poem in the book proper and it’s excellent but it’s the wealth of material at the end that make this book special. There is a note from the author, a note from the illustrator, an illustrated general timeline of creatures including an impressive fold out page, a list of key terms and concepts, and helpful lists of additional resources: books, videos & pages for children, resources/pages for educators, a mention of the availability of museums & aquariums, and a short selected bibliography.
The illustrations are marvelous. Most of them are gorgeous and fascinating. I liked the ones in the first third and the last quarter of the book better than some of the middle (sea life) pictures but they’re all fun to view. That page toward the end that folds out large and includes tons of facts is spectacular.
It's a well-designed and put together book. It would make a lovely gift for many children. I also hope that every library will have it available for borrowing.
4-1/2 stars
The information provided is wonderful and as thorough as could be expected from a picture book. In fact, the book is dense with information. There is an informative and engaging poem in the book proper and it’s excellent but it’s the wealth of material at the end that make this book special. There is a note from the author, a note from the illustrator, an illustrated general timeline of creatures including an impressive fold out page, a list of key terms and concepts, and helpful lists of additional resources: books, videos & pages for children, resources/pages for educators, a mention of the availability of museums & aquariums, and a short selected bibliography.
The illustrations are marvelous. Most of them are gorgeous and fascinating. I liked the ones in the first third and the last quarter of the book better than some of the middle (sea life) pictures but they’re all fun to view. That page toward the end that folds out large and includes tons of facts is spectacular.
It's a well-designed and put together book. It would make a lovely gift for many children. I also hope that every library will have it available for borrowing.
4-1/2 stars
June 15, 2024
Hard not to like a picture book that reviews 4.5 billion years of evolution with lovely illustrations.
June 8, 2024
I would rate this gorgeous title 5 stars even if there were no words, just for the lavish, emerald-and-sapphire illustrations painted in loving appreciation for this planet and its scientific ocean-origin story.
While the title's opening sentence sounds like the beginning of a myth or bible story ("...when the earth was young and new..."), in three distinct chapters, the author's brief rhyming text shares the millennial SCIENTIFIC origin of how the oceans came to be. Beginning with its birth from the Big Bang, to the beginning of life in the sea from microscopic life forms which evolved into shell animals, fish, and more, the author-illustrator team bring the sea to appreciative life. As sea life evolved, through layered seascapes, the illustrator offers greater and greater nuanced attention to all living forms beneath the waves.
A final double-page fold out spread shows the curvature of the earth and lays each eon of the earth's evolution. Abundant additional back matter provides key details of each eon (era), key terms and concepts, author's and illustrator's personal notes, and multiple additional resources including books, videos, resource collections, museums and aquariums, and further readings.
A final note on illustrator Amanda Hall's illustrations, the books' greatest asset: the paintings are simply glorious! She has captured the various depth of greens, teals, and blues of the ocean. Life forms come alive, jump off the page in the jewel-rich tones of the sea.
See more of Amanda Hall's work: https://www.amandahall-illustration.com
While the title's opening sentence sounds like the beginning of a myth or bible story ("...when the earth was young and new..."), in three distinct chapters, the author's brief rhyming text shares the millennial SCIENTIFIC origin of how the oceans came to be. Beginning with its birth from the Big Bang, to the beginning of life in the sea from microscopic life forms which evolved into shell animals, fish, and more, the author-illustrator team bring the sea to appreciative life. As sea life evolved, through layered seascapes, the illustrator offers greater and greater nuanced attention to all living forms beneath the waves.
A final double-page fold out spread shows the curvature of the earth and lays each eon of the earth's evolution. Abundant additional back matter provides key details of each eon (era), key terms and concepts, author's and illustrator's personal notes, and multiple additional resources including books, videos, resource collections, museums and aquariums, and further readings.
A final note on illustrator Amanda Hall's illustrations, the books' greatest asset: the paintings are simply glorious! She has captured the various depth of greens, teals, and blues of the ocean. Life forms come alive, jump off the page in the jewel-rich tones of the sea.
See more of Amanda Hall's work: https://www.amandahall-illustration.com
April 30, 2023
Fascinating Book About Ocean Life- Jennifer Berne is an extremely talented writer. HOW THE SEA CAME TO BE is her latest gift to young readers of magical nonfiction. Berne's brilliant storytelling in verse about the creation of oceans and sea life will surely capture the imagination of readers. Complemented by Amanda Hall's dazzling illustrations the book will inspire future scientists. Chocked full of facts and a timeline at the end, this book is a most have! Highly recommended to children of all ages.
May 1, 2023
The illustrations are stunning.
April 9, 2024
What a visually stunning book! The story is beautifully written too. The whole thing is a wonderful, enlightening experience overall
July 5, 2023
Wow! Fantastic rhyming book about the beginning. I love this one.
April 1, 2025
This is an AMAZING book for toddlers about how life began. It has great illustrations, it is scientifically accurate, and has a great rhyme scheme. We need more books like this!
August 1, 2023
What’s great about this picture book is that it has information ranging from basic for the youngest readers to highly scientific for the enthusiasts. The story is told in rhyme which is certainly even more engaging for the little ones. The illustrations are colorful and vibrant, coming alive on the page.
May 7, 2023
How the Sea Came to Be is an exploration of primordial evolution. In rhyming verse, Jennifer Berne begins with a burning, volcanic earth that over millions of years cools and builds up steam that finally builds into clouds that cause the torrential rains that carved out the seas. From there, it turns to the birth of life in the sea, from single-celled organisms to more complex and colorful lifeforms, to sentient life. The third part of the book details how, over the millions of years that followed, the sea gave birth to life on land even as more complex and multi-faceted creatures began to grow.
The final pages of the book are a note from the author and illustrator detailing the research that went into their work. Often, I think, readers imagine the illustrator as simply drawing what the author writes, but it is much more complex than that. Illustrator Amanda Hall recounts how she reached out to experts in the field and visited museums to get an idea of how to bring the primordial world to life. There’s an elaborate fold-out panel that offers an overview of ocean creatures over time before How the Sea Came to Be concludes with a glossary and recommended reading for future research.
How the Sea Came to Be is stunningly illustrated. Hall captures the brilliance and variance of ocean life throughout the millennia in a way that is eye-catching and captivating. Berne’s lyrical text provides a clear and simple explanation of the evolutionary process. Moving complex and hypothetical science into clear and concise terms isn’t always easy. Berne and Hall helped me envision evolutionary theory more clearly than I ever had before.
As you might have guessed, this book is a thoroughly secular science book. Even though Eerdman’s publishes Christian non-fiction, its children’s imprint publishes books for both religious and secular tastes. That said, there is no explicit denial of an external creator—and the book is silent on how the first things came to be and how life appeared in the ocean. For those exploring the concept of theistic evolution, this would be an appropriate resource. For those expecting a religious story of creation, it is not—and I shan’t criticize a book for not being something it is not trying to be.
What How the Sea Came to Be does to is invite questions and invoke wonder. It presents to us the mysterious ocean in all its glory and invites to explore that mystery deeper, and for that it ought to be treasured.
The final pages of the book are a note from the author and illustrator detailing the research that went into their work. Often, I think, readers imagine the illustrator as simply drawing what the author writes, but it is much more complex than that. Illustrator Amanda Hall recounts how she reached out to experts in the field and visited museums to get an idea of how to bring the primordial world to life. There’s an elaborate fold-out panel that offers an overview of ocean creatures over time before How the Sea Came to Be concludes with a glossary and recommended reading for future research.
How the Sea Came to Be is stunningly illustrated. Hall captures the brilliance and variance of ocean life throughout the millennia in a way that is eye-catching and captivating. Berne’s lyrical text provides a clear and simple explanation of the evolutionary process. Moving complex and hypothetical science into clear and concise terms isn’t always easy. Berne and Hall helped me envision evolutionary theory more clearly than I ever had before.
As you might have guessed, this book is a thoroughly secular science book. Even though Eerdman’s publishes Christian non-fiction, its children’s imprint publishes books for both religious and secular tastes. That said, there is no explicit denial of an external creator—and the book is silent on how the first things came to be and how life appeared in the ocean. For those exploring the concept of theistic evolution, this would be an appropriate resource. For those expecting a religious story of creation, it is not—and I shan’t criticize a book for not being something it is not trying to be.
What How the Sea Came to Be does to is invite questions and invoke wonder. It presents to us the mysterious ocean in all its glory and invites to explore that mystery deeper, and for that it ought to be treasured.
December 11, 2023
I love how you told this story. The sway of the lyrical rhyming text and the beautiful movement created by Amanda's stunning illustrations make the reader feel like they are right there billions of years ago in primordial ooze.
You did a great job giving us a story that spans billions of years. I can see why you chose to split it into three parts.
PART ONE: THE BIRTH OF THE SEA
Billions and billions of years long ago,
when the Earth was young and new,
the world was so hot,
rock melted and boiled,
and fiery, wild winds blew.
PART TWO: THE BIRTH OF LIFE
The oceans flowed wide and the oceans flowed deep,
and bluer and clearer they grew.
And sunlight shone down on the face of the Earth,
this planet of watery blue.
PART THREE: ALL THAT THE SEA CAME TO BE . . .
FROM THEN TO NOW
Life grew and life spread in this salty sea world for hundreds of millions of years. From its surface above to its depths far below where it’s cold and all light disappears.
The text and illustrations of each part are breathtakingly stunning and provide wonderful information. Teachers will love using this book to talk about Earth, discuss how our oceans were formed, and how we ended up with so many unusual underwater creatures.
I loved the author's note where Jennifer shares her enthusiasm for the Earth’s oceans and reminds us there are still mysterious, unexplored, unknown, and unseen parts of our planet. Less than ten percent of our ocean’s space has been explored by humans.
I'm sure by Jennifer's sharing statistics like approximately 236,000 marine species have been identified—with possibly millions more still to be found, that she shares with young minds, plus how she talks about computerized technologies, oceanographic instruments, sonar, remote sensors, and remote underwater vessels scientists being used to explore the unknown life in the sea, children will get excited to become explorers oceanographers, marine biologists, and marine archaeologists who will discover new species, new secrets, and solve many mysteries still to be discovered.
Maybe some of them will grow up and someday share some of those discoveries with a future generation by writing a book for children to read and get excited to explore more of the mysteries of our oceans. Good luck with the book!
You did a great job giving us a story that spans billions of years. I can see why you chose to split it into three parts.
PART ONE: THE BIRTH OF THE SEA
Billions and billions of years long ago,
when the Earth was young and new,
the world was so hot,
rock melted and boiled,
and fiery, wild winds blew.
PART TWO: THE BIRTH OF LIFE
The oceans flowed wide and the oceans flowed deep,
and bluer and clearer they grew.
And sunlight shone down on the face of the Earth,
this planet of watery blue.
PART THREE: ALL THAT THE SEA CAME TO BE . . .
FROM THEN TO NOW
Life grew and life spread in this salty sea world for hundreds of millions of years. From its surface above to its depths far below where it’s cold and all light disappears.
The text and illustrations of each part are breathtakingly stunning and provide wonderful information. Teachers will love using this book to talk about Earth, discuss how our oceans were formed, and how we ended up with so many unusual underwater creatures.
I loved the author's note where Jennifer shares her enthusiasm for the Earth’s oceans and reminds us there are still mysterious, unexplored, unknown, and unseen parts of our planet. Less than ten percent of our ocean’s space has been explored by humans.
I'm sure by Jennifer's sharing statistics like approximately 236,000 marine species have been identified—with possibly millions more still to be found, that she shares with young minds, plus how she talks about computerized technologies, oceanographic instruments, sonar, remote sensors, and remote underwater vessels scientists being used to explore the unknown life in the sea, children will get excited to become explorers oceanographers, marine biologists, and marine archaeologists who will discover new species, new secrets, and solve many mysteries still to be discovered.
Maybe some of them will grow up and someday share some of those discoveries with a future generation by writing a book for children to read and get excited to explore more of the mysteries of our oceans. Good luck with the book!
August 24, 2025
This recent nonfiction picture book, spanning billions of years of transformation and evolution on planet Earth, does so using three sections. These transport readers from the earliest eras of swirling fiery fury through to a family strolling on a beach. Part one is the making of the seas, involving heating, cooling, evaporation, rainfall, and the eventual watery surface our entire planet. Part two reveals, within a few page turns, the shifts from pairs of cells to strings to complex building blocks of life: shelled, wiggling, tubular, wormy, faceted life. Part three, "All that the sea came to be", continues on, carrying readers through the transformations and developments of diverse sea life as we know it today.
Whew! Not a single creature starred in those processes, and I can think of no longer time span to depict. In fact, that unimaginable span is fully mind-blowing for this well-read adult. It's a good thing that young minds have greater plasticity and willingness to wonder in awe. All the action is underwater until the final spread on the beach, meaning NONE of it is part of any child's natural life experience. Wow, risky.
And then there's the rhyme... WHAT?!?! Doesn't the above present enough of a challenge without trying to tell it in rhyme? Most might have assumed that to be true, but this author knew what she was doing. With one or two four-line stanzas on each densely illustrated page, science content is presented in perfect read-aloud rhyme that enhances reporting of the dynamic action, swirling settings, and swirling colorful creatures. Last lines and repeating refrains are especially kid-friendly to retain focus on the big-picture concepts:
"And life grew, and life changed, and life grew.
and
"And that was how life began in the sea."
After several readings I also recognized the brilliance of saving tech-y content for back matter, since the "scienc-y words" do not disrupt any of the rhyming lines. Even things like amino acids or cells or other rhyme-able words were avoided in favor of big concept, big process, big picture descriptions. And it works! The colorful, oversized images and lyrical rhythms and rhymes make this a potential favorite for the very young as well as for school age kids.
Whew! Not a single creature starred in those processes, and I can think of no longer time span to depict. In fact, that unimaginable span is fully mind-blowing for this well-read adult. It's a good thing that young minds have greater plasticity and willingness to wonder in awe. All the action is underwater until the final spread on the beach, meaning NONE of it is part of any child's natural life experience. Wow, risky.
And then there's the rhyme... WHAT?!?! Doesn't the above present enough of a challenge without trying to tell it in rhyme? Most might have assumed that to be true, but this author knew what she was doing. With one or two four-line stanzas on each densely illustrated page, science content is presented in perfect read-aloud rhyme that enhances reporting of the dynamic action, swirling settings, and swirling colorful creatures. Last lines and repeating refrains are especially kid-friendly to retain focus on the big-picture concepts:
"And life grew, and life changed, and life grew.
and
"And that was how life began in the sea."
After several readings I also recognized the brilliance of saving tech-y content for back matter, since the "scienc-y words" do not disrupt any of the rhyming lines. Even things like amino acids or cells or other rhyme-able words were avoided in favor of big concept, big process, big picture descriptions. And it works! The colorful, oversized images and lyrical rhythms and rhymes make this a potential favorite for the very young as well as for school age kids.
November 10, 2023
With an engaging, child-friendly ABCB rhyme scheme, Berne shares the fascinating 4.5 billion-year history of the seas and its inhabitants. Starting out when the earth was a fiery mass with no water, Berne recounts how rains fell to the earth as it cooled, creating oceans “all over the world.” From there, she shows how the “teeniest, tiniest stirrings of life” multiplied in the oceans and how they evolved into more complex life forms, including jellyfish, worms, and creatures with “the very first feet.”
In the final third of How the Seas Came to Be, Berne explores the seas from the surface warmed by the sun to the far depths, showing eager readers the fascinating creatures that dwell in each ecosystem.
Berne’s detailed descriptions combined with Hall’s luminous illustrations of these creatures are a true treat for lovers of oceans and the life that inhabits them. Particularly stunning are the spreads showing creatures inhabiting the darkest depths set against a black background and a scene filled with reef dwellers in their bright, multi-colored finery. In her Illustrator’s Note, Hall shares her life-long fascination with natural history and informs readers that multiple trips to the Natural History Museum in London and the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge, England, informed her illustrations, which were vetted for accuracy by the Principal Researcher at the Natural History Museum.
Informative Back Matter completes this stunning picture book.
In the final third of How the Seas Came to Be, Berne explores the seas from the surface warmed by the sun to the far depths, showing eager readers the fascinating creatures that dwell in each ecosystem.
Berne’s detailed descriptions combined with Hall’s luminous illustrations of these creatures are a true treat for lovers of oceans and the life that inhabits them. Particularly stunning are the spreads showing creatures inhabiting the darkest depths set against a black background and a scene filled with reef dwellers in their bright, multi-colored finery. In her Illustrator’s Note, Hall shares her life-long fascination with natural history and informs readers that multiple trips to the Natural History Museum in London and the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge, England, informed her illustrations, which were vetted for accuracy by the Principal Researcher at the Natural History Museum.
Informative Back Matter completes this stunning picture book.
November 18, 2023
How the Sea Came to Be and All the Creatures in it serves up a perfect mix of art and science. The text by Jennifer Berne describes in verse what happened over millions of years to create the oceans and to populate it with the range of creatures who live there today. The illustrations by Amanda Hall are detailed and engaging. The backmatter is robust with the following sections:
"Discovering More, Always Learning" by Berne which explains the process of evolution in a more advanced way than the poetry of the main text.
"Diving Deep, Still Evolving" by Hall describes her process of doing research for the illustrations.
"Ocean Creatures Over Time," provides scientific information about twelve of the many creatures that appear in the main text of the book. These two pages open up to show a double length page of
*drumroll please*
Six Eras of the Earth's / Sea's Development--Hadeon Eon Era to today's Era (Cenezoic). This is a beautiful illustration set up like a hemisphere with the earth at the bottom in sections and the sky above holding text with the names, dates, and durations of each era.
"Key Terms and Concepts" is a more elaborate form of a glossary with most entries receiving full paragraphs of description.
A full page of resources listed under 5 different headings for introducing theses types of texts books, articles, webpages, videos, and museums.
Finally, acknowledgements and dedications.
"Discovering More, Always Learning" by Berne which explains the process of evolution in a more advanced way than the poetry of the main text.
"Diving Deep, Still Evolving" by Hall describes her process of doing research for the illustrations.
"Ocean Creatures Over Time," provides scientific information about twelve of the many creatures that appear in the main text of the book. These two pages open up to show a double length page of
*drumroll please*
Six Eras of the Earth's / Sea's Development--Hadeon Eon Era to today's Era (Cenezoic). This is a beautiful illustration set up like a hemisphere with the earth at the bottom in sections and the sky above holding text with the names, dates, and durations of each era.
"Key Terms and Concepts" is a more elaborate form of a glossary with most entries receiving full paragraphs of description.
A full page of resources listed under 5 different headings for introducing theses types of texts books, articles, webpages, videos, and museums.
Finally, acknowledgements and dedications.
June 29, 2023
This picture book is a fascinating and gorgeously-illustrated lyrical ode to the formation of the sea and all the life in it. I appreciate when nonfiction books for children contain engaging narratives to read through. The book is divided into three sections: Part One is The Birth of the Sea, Part Two is The Birth of Life and Part Three is All That the Sea Came to Be (From Then to Now). The illustrations especially do a wonderful job engaging the imagination with the formation of the Earth and then oceans and life. It's beautifully done, and I love the pictured timeline fold-out spread at the end of the book taking you through each phase of change described in the narrative.
***Note: I was given a review copy of this book via Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. Opinions are my own.
***Note: I was given a review copy of this book via Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. Opinions are my own.
July 10, 2023
HOW THE SEA CAME TO BE is about the origins of life under the sea. It is about the early beginnings of Earth and spans forward billions of years to the lush, vibrant ocean we have today. The words are lyrical and share a captivating history of geology, oceanology and marine biology. The illustrations are full of color and the great diversity that exists in our oceans. There are pages of backmatter that offer a wealth of resources for children, families, and classrooms to dive deeper into what we know about our oceans. Together they offer an incredible introduction to the prehistoric ocean and all that came after.
August 31, 2024
WOW! A spectacular book by Jennifer Berne that journeys back in time to recount the birth of the sea.
The text is lyrical and uses many poetic devices:
"Earth sizzled and simmered for millions of years.
It bubbled and burbled and hissed."
It's an easy read that helps young readers understand the deep of history on our planet. And where there's water, there's life. Berne goes on to detail the wondrous creatures that inhabit our oceans. The illustrations are equally engaging. And the backmatter was SUPERB! I loved reading the extra information but children will especially love the pull out map that details the various time periods related to the ocean. A must read!
The text is lyrical and uses many poetic devices:
"Earth sizzled and simmered for millions of years.
It bubbled and burbled and hissed."
It's an easy read that helps young readers understand the deep of history on our planet. And where there's water, there's life. Berne goes on to detail the wondrous creatures that inhabit our oceans. The illustrations are equally engaging. And the backmatter was SUPERB! I loved reading the extra information but children will especially love the pull out map that details the various time periods related to the ocean. A must read!
June 7, 2023
Brief summary: This narrative nonfiction picture book is divided into Part One: The Birth of the Sea, Part Two: The Birth of Life, Part Three: All That the Sea Came to Be...From Then to Now, and a section of informative back pages including a foldout of ocean creatures over time.
The text is in a stanza of four lines with lines 2 & 4 rhyming. The illustrations are large and colorful and had me stopping to soak up the way the creatures were evolving.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
The text is in a stanza of four lines with lines 2 & 4 rhyming. The illustrations are large and colorful and had me stopping to soak up the way the creatures were evolving.
Rating: 4/5 📗📗📗📗
September 10, 2023
This pciture book would make a lovely gift. It's a great read-along book, with fun and easy-to-read text, illustrations full of the kinds of details that picture book readers will love, all delivering some basic science for the very young. Among the standout moments -- I can just imagine young readers being very excited about whe wiggling worm that points in a direction and wants to meet other worms!
January 13, 2024
A few of the early lines don't rhyme smoothly, but Berne settles in and the rest works. Long text--too long for a read aloud, unless done in several parts, and definitely not for toddlers or perhaps even preschoolers. But Amanda Hall's art is fabulous and will draw the attention of kids of all ages, and adults too. Well researched with lots of resources at the end. A great example of excellence in kids non-fiction picture books.
September 4, 2023
This is a beautiful text written with rhyme that not only tells the history of how the ocean came to be, but shares a love of all the creatures to be found within its depths. The illustrations share that joy as well with creatures swimming, jumping, and splashing at every layer of the sea. It's a wonderfully different perspective of the ocean.
February 17, 2023
HOW THE SEA CAME TO BE: AND ALL THE CREATURES IN IT is a read-aloud parents and teachers do not want to miss. With eons of fascinating scientific facts in lyrical movement, this informational nonfiction (for ages 6 to 10) sings.
August 23, 2023
An absolutely stellar introduction to how the sea was made! Broken up into geological time chunks, this book was really interesting and the illustrations were so bright and vivid and easy to understand.
April 22, 2024
Rhyming text and vibrant illustrations combine to create an engaging history of the earth from its very beginnings to complex life in the sea.
Back matter includes extensive information on terms and concepts, the evolution of ocean creatures, and the different eras in evolution.
Back matter includes extensive information on terms and concepts, the evolution of ocean creatures, and the different eras in evolution.
May 9, 2024
Impressive rhyming! Such a well written nonfiction picture book. Lyrical and meaningful, this book will interest you while you're loving the way the words flow together in rhyme. Illustrations are gorgeous, too! A must for all elementary school library collections.
July 18, 2023
I like the rhyming nature of the book. And there is a definitely an audience for it.
I'm just not it with my worldview. ;)
I'm just not it with my worldview. ;)
July 26, 2023
This books manages to inform and keep a well flowing rhyme sequence which is not an easy feat! Very vibrant illustrations as well.
September 10, 2023
A great book for young readers
October 13, 2023
Cool take on development of life in the oceans. The poetry flows pretty well and the illustrations are lovely. Excellent back matter, including a really interesting gate fold.
October 17, 2023
Beautiful art and I learned a lot about how they think the earth came to be. Rhyming books never work great, but it's passable.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews