Aliens! Becoming a Jellyfish by Grace Hansen

You don't have to rocket to outer space (or even visit Roswell, New Mexico) to see alien creatures. Take a trip to your nearest aquarium or just pack your swimsuit and goggles and snorkel around in some ocean shallows and you may see that truly outlandish but numerous sea alien, the common and uncommon jellyfish.

About as different from the human form as a creature can be, these transparent, sometimes colored, sometimes almost as clear as glass, tentacled creatures equipped with weapons that can zap are fascinating forms of sealife. Beginning as eggs, they hatch as larva and float free in the sea until they find a suitable rock or similar surface on which to attach and turn into colorless polyps, mostly invisible, to grow and combine with others to form a column of strobila, looking like a stack of open colored umbrellas, which gradually break loose and float off solo.

THE POLYP IS NOW AN EPHYRA, AN IMMATURE JELLYFISH.

It floats free in the sea as it grows.

AT LAST IT BECOMES A MATURE JELLYFISH....

IT MOVES BY PUSHING WATER OUT OF ITS BODY. IT EATS PLANTS, FISH, AND EVEN CRABS!

It's a fascinating group of weird and sometimes surprisingly lovely sea creatures that can pack quite a zap, depending on how we interact with them, as described in Grace Hansen's Becoming a Jellyfish (Changing Animals) (Abdo Publishing). One of the standouts in the publisher's Changing Animals series, this one provides stunning full-page color photographs on almost all pages and minimal "just the facts" information about this amazing alien life form among us. The author also offers backmatter than includes More Facts and Glossary. Minimal descriptive text and eye-catching photographs that extend the text make this one great for building the knowledge base for preschoolers and references for classroom units and assignments in the primary grades.

Attack of The Blob: Jellyfish by Judy Wearing

The largest jellyfish is called the lion's mane.

It grows up to 8 feet wide. Its tentacles can be as long as 100 feet.

The world below the ocean's surface is a fascinating and widely diverse place. And few sea creatures are more visually arresting or varied than the jellyfish.

They can be as small as a dime, but live in a swarm of over a million individuals. They can be clear and colorless, or bright lavender, red or pink. They can be found in shallow tidal pools, or they can be found in the deepest deeps of the sea. They can be deadly enough to kill an adult human, yet they have no heart, bone, or brain.

In just twenty-four pages, Judy Wearling's Jellyfish (Wow World of Wonder) (Weigl, 2010) has plenty of eye-popping color photos and fascinating facts to keep young readers engrossed in each well designed double-page spread. Scientific terms such as polyps and arctic are introduced in boldface and repeated in the glossary. Four web sites, including National Geographic Kids, activities, and an index round out the essential appendix for this introductory level nonfiction.

Other books in the Wow World of Wonder series include Manta Rays (World of Wonder: Underwater Life), Seahorses (Wow World of Wonder), and Sea Turtles (Wow World of Wonder), all great for browsing or for early elementary research.