Underwater Counting
Jerry Pallotta, author
Jerry Pallotta is an award-winning author of children's alphabet books and imaginative fiction. He combines interesting facts, detailed research, humor, and realistic illustrations that mesmerize children everywhere.
Jerry spent his teenage years in the fishing town of Scituate, Massachusetts, where he kept lobster traps, harvested seaweed, and rode on fishing draggers. He wanted to share the creatures of the seashore with his children but could not find an alphabet book that was fun and exciting. This inspired him to write his first book, The Ocean Alphabet Book, which presented oceanic creatures in a creative format.
Read more about Jerry Pallotta.
David Biedrzycki, illustrator
David Biedrzycki has been creating illustrations for book publishers, advertising agencies, magazines, and design firms since 1980. His art has graced the cover of KidSoft magazine, New England Aquarium billboards and children's software packaging, such as "The Amazon Trail" and "Odell Down Under." His clients include Celestial Seasonings®, After the Fall Juices(tm), IBM, and Newsweek.
Read more about David Biedrzycki.
- Learning Teachers' Choice Award
Booklist
The author of The Icky Bug Alphabet Book and many other popular books on basic skills returns with this attractive, informative counting book. The text counts from 0 to 50 by even numbers (except for "one Green Moray Eel") and gives some general information (sometimes just a few words) about the underwater creatures that appear in the pictures. A nice variety of water-dwellers is included, many with unusual features, such as the bright blue teeth of the harlequin tuskfish. Younger children may have a difficult time with the concept of even numbers, but they'll still enjoy paging through Biedrzycki's spectacular, computer-generated underwater scenes aglow with neon-colored sea creatures and plants. Kids will also enjoy searching the illustrations for the featured number, which is cleverly hidden in each scene. Use this to complement a unit on the sea and to integrate math, science, and art in a whole-language curriculum.
Through The Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The world’s oceans and seas are full of beautiful, bizarre, and remarkable creatures, and in this book, you will get to meet just a few of them. On one page, you will see manta rays floating through the water feeding, their wings flapping gently. These enormous creatures can weigh up to a ton and a half. At the other end of the scale, you will see tiny baby turtles who dash for the water as soon as they hatch out of their eggs. Due to their tiny size, most of these diminutive babies will not survive to become adults.
Some of the fish you will see in this book have adapted to their environment in very unique ways. To escape from predators, flyingfish have evolved in such a way that they are able to leap out of the water and glide over the waves. Trumpetfish have a different approach. Instead of trying to escape from predators, they choose to hide. When trouble appears on the scene, the long and thin Trumpetfish hangs vertically in the water so that it looks like a piece of coral or seaweed.
If you are interested in ocean and sea animals then you are sure to enjoy looking through this fact-filled counting book. With an obvious sense of humor, Jerry Pallotta takes us beneath the waves to meet some beautiful and some very strange animals. As you turn the pages, the number of animals on the spreads increase by two until you end up with scenes that are full of floating, crawling, swimming, or even flying creatures.
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-88106-952-5
Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-88106-800-9
E-book PDF
ISBN: 978-1-60734-292-2
Ages: 4-8
Page count: 32
11 x 8 1/2