They Swim the Seas: The Mystery of Animal Migration

by Seymour Simon, Else Warnick (Illustrator)

Amazing facts about animal migration from an acclaimed science writer and a remarkable illustrator. The oceans of the world are busy highways for creatures on the move. Plankton - small plants and animals, some so tiny they cannot be seen without a microscope - travel up to the surface and then down more than three thousand feet twice a day; eight-hundred-pound green turtles swim more than a thousand miles to lay their eggs; and spiny lobsters, forming long lines, walk across the ocean bottom.

Award-winning science writer Seymour Simon and illustrator Elsa Warnick team again in this vivid companion to Ride the Wind: Airborne Journeys of Animals and Plants. Fascinating glimpses of the mysterious migration of sea creatures will enthrall and amaze young readers.

Seymour Simon is the highly acclaimed author of more than 150 books and has received lifetime achievement awards from the American Nature Study Society, the Washington Post/Children's Book Guild, and other prestigious organizations. He lives in Great Neck and Columbia County, New York.

Elsa Warnick teaches illustration at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, where she makes her home.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

40 pages, Library Binding

First published September 15, 1998

About the author

Seymour Simon, whom the NY Times called "the dean of [children's science:] writers," is the author of more than 250 highly acclaimed science books (many of which have been named Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children by the National Science Teachers Association).

Seymour Simon uses his website, SeymourSimon.com, to provide free downloads of a wealth of materials for educators, homeschoolers and parents to use with his books, including 4-page Teacher Guides for all 26 of his Collins/Smithsonian photo essay books. The site provides multiple resources for kids writing book reports or wanting to explore the online Science Dictionary, and also features the Seymour Science blog highlighting current science news. Educators and families are encouraged to sign up to receive the monthly newsletter from SeymourSimon.com to stay abreast of the latest materials that Seymour Simon is introducing to enrich the reading experience.

He taught science and creative writing in elementary and secondary schools and was chair of the science department at a junior high school in the New York City public school system before leaving to become a full-time writer. "I haven't really given up teaching," he says, "and I suppose I never will, not as long as I keep writing and talking to kids around the country and the world."

Seymour Simon is also a creator and the author of a series of 3D books and a series of Glow-in-the-Dark Books for Scholastic Book Clubs, a series of leveled SEEMORE READERS for Chronicle Books, and the EINSTEIN ANDERSON, SCIENCE DETECTIVE series of fiction books. His books encourage children to enjoy the world around them through learning and discovery, and by making science fun. He has introduced tens of millions of children to a staggering array of subjects; one prominent science education specialist described Simon's books as "extraordinary examples of expository prose."

Seymour Simon has been honored with many awards for his work, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Lifetime Achievement Award for his lasting contribution to children's science literature; the New York State Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature; the Hope S. Dean Memorial Award from the Boston Public Library for his contribution to children's science literature; The Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Award for Non-fiction; the Jeremiah Ludington Award for his outstanding contribution to children's nonfiction; the Empire State Award for excellence in literature for young people; and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Forum on Children's Science Books.

In a recent interview Simon was asked if he ever thinks of retiring. "I seem to be working faster and harder than ever. I absolutely don't feel any urge to sit back and look at what I've done. The only things that I'm thinking about are things I'd like to do in the future. I'm planning and doing and continuing to write. It's what I love to do. I remember a story about an anthropologist going to talk to a tribe and he asked them what was their word for "work." Their response was they have no word for work. Everybody does the things that they do in their life. I love that response. I don't differentiate between work and play. Everything I do is something that I enjoy doing - the writing, the research and everything else."

Seymour Simon writes and photographs nature from his hilltop home in Columbia County in upstate New York, where he lives with his wife Liz Nealon.

You can follow Seymour on Facebook and on Twitter, as well as on his website, which offers free, downloadable Teacher Guides to his books for educators, parents and homeschoolers, as well as the popular Seymour Science Daily Blo

Reviews

[Manybooks]

REVIEW OF THE ORIGINAL 1998 EDITION

So yes, Seymour Simon certainly does textually present a plethora of interesting and factual details in his 1998 non fiction picture book They Swim the Seas: The Mystery of Animal Migration and with the author’s main point specifically being that in the world’s oceans, EVERYTHING tends to be perpetually on the move, and not just fishes, sea turtles, whales, seals and the like, but also plankton, algae, sea grasses (as well as seashore plant seeds, such as for example coconuts). In other words, because the ocean is constantly in motion with its waves and currents, the many creatures and plants encountered there are according to Seymour Simon’s text in They Swim the Seas: The Mystery of Animal Migration also described as naturally always moving, both up and down and side to side (both vertically and horizontally), and sometimes, even often, featuring distances of thousands of kilometres, like for example, what the migration patterns of in particular whales and the huge journeys of sea turtles demonstrate (and of course, it is also really amazing and intriguing that ALL eels are born in the Saragossa Sea and that we really still do not know all that much about their lives as elvers).

Engagingly, enlighteningly penned, intensely descriptive and although factually dense, in my humble opinion also never too textually overwhelming for the intended age group (since Seymour Simon presents his information in an always scientific but not ever jargon heavy manner), I would definitely recommend They Swim the Seas: The Mystery of Animal Migration as an interesting and educational introduction to ocean animal and plant movement and migration and to the many reasons as to how and why (for children from about the age of eight or so onwards, as well as to teachers and parents). However, I do leave the caveat that with regard to my personal aesthetics, Elsa Warnick’s accompanying artwork, while certainly colourful, also does not really sufficiently mirror and compliment Seymour Simon’s printed words like photographs would do and that the annoying and personally major frustrating absence of a bibliography does to and for me rather majorly limit and lessen the teaching and learning value of They Swim the Seas: The Mystery of Animal Migration (and of course makes supplemental research from the book itself pretty well and rather impossible).

[Fjóla]

Out of the two, They Walk the Earth and this one, I was quite a bit more touched and impressed by this one. It's inspired and the watercolor illustrations beautiful. Both books are quite heavy on text, so maybe not all that suited for read aloud, but a great resource for second graders and up, I think ...

[Viri]

Seymour Simon tells of a amazing animals that travel through the oceans for miles to get to their destination. Their incredable journey is told in this book where we learn that turtles travel to the beach to lay their eggs, where plancton so small that we may not see with the naked eye travel up and down in to the depts of the ocean in a day and where salmon swim up river for miles to lay their eggs. The amazing stories and travels of these animals are all written in a fun informative way where the illistrations done by Elsa Warnick does an incredable job drawing and painting the animals that the book portraits. The cover of the book was a great example and made me confident that this was the right book for children. The illustrations are not just simple drawings but may look like real animals, drawn in perspective of how we would see the planton and the whale along with their babies and families. Great book when talking about the many animals in the oceans and their lives.