One Night in the Coral Sea

by Sneed B. Collard III

In 1980, scientists discovered that hundreds of corals on the Great Barrier Reef participate in a mass spawning event. Science author Sneed B. Collard III explains coral reefs, the coral larvae's perilous journey through the sea to their home on the reef, and the animals that depend on this ecosystem for their survival. Intricate cut-paper illustrations capture the eye-catching colors of this underwater world.

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

About the author

Sneed B. Collard III (see also "Sneed B. Collard") is a biologist, world traveler, speaker, and author of almost one hundred books for young people, including the 2024 Orbis Pictus Award winner, Border Crossings (Charlesbridge Publishing). His other recent science titles include Fire Birds; Hopping Ahead of Climate Change; Little Killers; Waiting for a Warbler; Beaver & Otter Get Along . . . Sort of; and the upcoming picture book, Like No Other. Collard holds science degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and U.C. Santa Barbara. He lives in Montana.

Reviews

[Kimberly]

The pictures in this book are amazing. They are cut paper collages made from paper painted with watercolor. The pieces are sculpted together to create 3D, dreamy but realistic renditions of life in the coral reef.
This book introduces the coral reef, different corals and animals that live around the coral. It is about the mass spawning of the coral in the springtime. Beginning with the release of sperm and eggs into the Coral Sea, the book describes the fertilization, the larval stage and the metamorphosis from larvae to coral polyp.
The pictures in this book would be great examples of collage or watercolor in an art class. This book doesn't cover the death of coral, but with other information about dying coral reefs, this book would be fantastic for teaching the life cycle of coral and ocean conservation. It is presented in such a way that it would be easy to make comparisons to other life cycles -- frogs, insects or plants.

[Kaylee Warzecha]

This book was awesome! It talked about how one night a year in the Great Barrier Reef the Coral spawns and talks about how the eggs survive in order to produce more coral. This book also talks about all the different types of animals that live in the reef and how they benefit from living there. There was so much information in this book that to use it for teaching purposes I would break the book up into different sections because it would be difficult to keep the attention of children for so long. I also loved the pictures, they were full of texture and even looked real in some places. (nonfiction)

[Janice]

How the coral reef comes to be. More about how it reproduces. Which can get tedious for kids. Thought this was going to be more about all the life that depends on the coral reef.

This would be for older elementary. (probably not good for read aloud just because it gets a little too detailed)

Great pictures though.

[James Biser]

This is a great description of the coral reef. The author highlights the Great Barrrier Reef off the coast of Australia which is the world's largest. Many people have spent time snorkeling when they visit island and tropical locations, and nature shows introduce the public to coral reefs. This book describes the beauty and diversity and even explains how coral polyps reproduce. It is a great book for everyone interested in loooking bacstage of that habitat.

[Courtney Lloyd]

One Night in the Coral Sea, is a beautiful non-fiction book about the Great Barrier Reef. This book does contain some larger and difficult words to pronounce. The book's main topic is about how the coral reef grows and the "mass spawning event". I would recommend this book for older children to read rather than lower elementary children. The illustrations in the book are absolutely stunning. The pictures look like pop-up art and that you just want to reach out and touch it.

This book could obviously be used to teach about the Great Barrier Reef, the fish that live in the coral and the coral's mass spawning. This book contains a lot vocabulary words and the book defines the words too. A teacher could do many activities with the vocabulary words and the longer words would be great for a speech therapist to let the more advance readers try to pronounce. For a young one, this book contains many different colors, shapes and different types of sea creatures. Overall, this book is very educational and I would recommend for older students to read.

[Jade Kuhn]

At first glance one might assume that this book is a fictional tale, but as one reads on you soon realize that it is a non-fiction book about sea animals on and near the Great Barrier Reef. The book looks small but is full of information; however it is not overwhelming by any means. The book circles around the coral reef, but they also include information on its inhabitants. The text isn’t very difficult to understand, and words that may be confusing are given a definition. Also, the book contains an index, a glossary, and a list of books and websites one could go to if they wanted to find out more about coral. The illustrations are outstanding. The usage of color alone is enough to keep a child entertained. The whole book is done with 3-d texture that the illustrator done with paper. Each page shows the species of sea animals you find in the reef along with their name. There is also a map of Australia that pin points where the reef is located and what type of climate coral needs to grow. The illustrations also give us a visual of how some of the different corals look like. This book would be a great tool in helping a teacher with a coral lesson. A Read Aloud with a parent, grandparent or other adult would be an excellent use as well.

[SaraKat]

An informative book about what a coral reef is and the types of organisms that live there. It also describes the mass spawning events that happen in some coral reefs well including the evolutionary reason for it. I thought the art was interesting, and in fact, this was used as an example for the graphic technique of collage in one of my textbooks. I thought that actual pictures might have been better, but there are so many books with real pictures, so the collage technique makes this one stand out. Some portions are a bit hard to read with black text on pretty dark backgrounds. The illustrations are very busy and will allow a reader to investigate each one for a long time.

[Maria]

Informational

The coral reaf on the Australia coast has a special, terrific event that happens every new moon. The coral reaf sends off millions of seeds and sperm to fertilize and start new plants. The book shows amazing pictures of the wildlife in the ocean.

[Jennifer]

Sneed Collard's non-fiction books are always a good bet, team it up with Robin Brickman's fantastic watercolor sculptures and you've got an incredible book.

[Kaylee Gallup]

INFORMATIONAL
All you would ever want to know about coral: what it is and what it does.

[Stacia Leigh]

GORGEOUS artwork...every page was precious.

[Katie Florida]

Awesome artwork and description of Great Barrier Reef. A very detailed and scientific description of the annual coral spawning.