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.

Into the Unknown: Smithsonian Readers Endless Explorations Level 4

Most of the great pioneers of space flight were world-class daydreamers. Before a leap into space, there must come a great leap of the imagination.

Our exploration of space, in fact, began as a great nighttime daydream. We looked to the stars...

Young, newly independent readers are like explorers, moving out into a world of information and imagining what might be done with it, and that is the premise of Smithsonian Readers: Endless Explorations Level 4 (Smithsonian/Silver Dolphin Books, 2015). With a knowledge base and higher-level language skills, the sky's the limit for upper elementary students to follow their interests wherever they may lead.

This volume offers fascinating facts and photographs on a wide range of subjects, from the Hubble Space Telescope and Mars Rovers to the science of tsunamis and pandemics, the ways of desert tarantulas to the migrations of blue whales, from man's history of earth flight and space flight and into the deeps of the world's oceans and what can be found there.  Six sections--Predators, Space Exploration, Natural Disasters, World Wonders, Ocean Habitats, and the Science and History of Flight--take readers in the upper elementary grades into new places and areas of knowledge.

As in all the four volumes of this series, a glossary follows each section, summarizing the terms introduced in boldface within the text, as does a brief, self-checking quiz, and punch-out cards for review and games. Vocabulary and sentence structure are appropriate for readers approaching the middle-school levels in which reading for subject content requires structure and some sophistication in the learner.

Additional reinforcing kits are also available, such as the Smithsonian Magnetic Adventures: Solar System for hands-on activities.

As for that imagination, that's a do-it-yourself activity for the reader.  Bon voyage, kids! The sky's the limit!

The Mightiest Mollusk The Octopus Scientists: Exploring the Mind of the Mollusk by Sy Montgomery

With their superhuman strength, seemingly magical skin, and eerie intelligence, octopuses have inspired artists, storytellers, and even religious leaders from coastal cultures around the world.

Octopuses are infinitely intriguing because, let's face it, they are just so amazingly weird!

They are mollusks, but they have no shells. They have eight arms, two of which have their own brains and hearts. and all of which can regrow themselves. They walk on their arms, zoom through the water jet propelled by water-pressure jets. and their sense of taste is located in their suckers. They have only one "tooth," a beak powerful enough to crack a crack a crab or amputate a limb.

Shape-shifters who can squeeze through tiny openings, their blood runs blue and their skin can transform from an shapeless mass of pimply, putty-colored papillae to an iridescent, shimmering mass of glowing blue or orange, a total stop-light red meant to give predators pause, or perfectly mottled camouflage matched to any background--all in the blink of an eye. They are smart enough to recognize familiar human faces for years and remember whether they were gentle or threatening, and neat enough after eating to arrange their empty crab shells and legs in neat stacks like china plates and silverware after a dinner party.

Surely a creature with a claim to being the most alien of the animal kingdom is well deserving of scientific study in Sy Montgomery's forthcoming tomorrow, The Octopus Scientists (Scientists in the Field Series) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015).  In this title author Cy Montgomery has the enviable assignment of shadowing a team of ocean biology scientists on the tropical island of Moorea in French Polynesia, where most of the diving is in shallow water and requires only a snorkel and mask and the main hazards are knees skinned on shallow coral while scanning for the octopus dens.

No octopuses are taken as specimens; only their neatly piled "middens," are collected to document their diets. Researchers do administer personality tests to their subject to measure how bold or shy the cephalopods may be.  Octopus psychologists may recognize some similarities to human patients: shy ones cringe and withdraw when poked, while bold ones grab the pencil and try to pull it out of the researcher's hand. Really annoyed octopuses shoot a blob from their sand funnels at the investigator, and desperate ones depart in a cloud of black ink.

Replete with gorgeous underwater photos of multicolored tropical fish and corals, giant clams and crabs, buff-colored sea cucumbers and black-tipped (non-man-eating) sharks, swim-finned students, and teasing glimpses of tropical shores, this book follows the disappointments and discoveries, the discipline of taking endless notes underwater and the discomforts of crawling over dead coral and swimming through algae with the texture of Brillo pads, but especially the joys of adding to the knowledge of this little known but wondrous animal. As always in Houghton Mifflin's notable Scientists in the Field, series, a bibliography and detailed index add to the usefulness of this entry. "Science in the field at its best," says Kirkus Reviews.

For even more psychological octopus oddities, pair this one with Sy Montgomery's just published The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness.

Are We There Yet?: Following Papa's Song by Giana Marino

AT DAWN LITTLE BLUE NUZZLED ALONGSIDE PAPA AND ASKED, "IS IT TIME?"

Papa says it is time to make their annual journey north to their seasonal territory. But Little Blue has never made that swim and can hardly conceive of what it means to go so far.

"PAPA, HOW WILL WE KNOW WHICH WAY TO GO?"

"WE'LL FOLLOW THE SOUND OF THE WHALES, LITTLE BLUE, JUST LIKE OUR FAMILY HAS FOR YEARS AND YEARS."

Little Blue hears the whale song, but the ocean seems so big and Papa swims so fast. What if he falls behind? Papa answers.

"IF YOU LISTEN CLOSELY, YOU WILL ALWAYS HEAR MY SONG."

Little Blue hears the song of the others ahead, and he sticks very close to Papa, swimming as hard as he can. But soon he begins to look around at all the new and fascinating sights as they pass--all sorts of fish, giant sea turtles, jellyfish, and kelp. And then Little Blue looks beneath him and Papa. It is a very dark blue and seems to go down forever. Papa tells him to look but stay near the surface with him.

Then Little blue glimpses just a flash of silvery light below. Could he just go a bit deeper and see what it is?

He dives down, toward the flicker of light.

EVERYTHING WAS MAGIC, JUST LIKE PAPA SAID.

Down, further in the deep, where few rays of sunlight filter, he sees beautiful creatures, dolpins, luminescent fish, and huge rays that seem to soar through the depths on giant, graceful wings.

But then Little Blue realizes that it is very silent in the deep and that he is feeling cold, very cold. He looks up to where Papa was just a minute ago, but he sees no bulky silhouette against the glittering surface. Little Blue calls for Papa. He calls and calls. All he hears are his own frightened sounds.

What was it that Papa had said for him to do?

Giana Marino's newest, Following Papa's Song (Viking Books, 2014), is a lovely and lyrical salute to fatherhood and to the wonders of the sea. Her exquisite double-page underwater scenes glow with silver, green, and then blue and her shifts in perspective show first the enormity of the humpback whale father and son and the vastness of the ocean depths in which they are indeed small, especially Little Blue, as alone in the dark depths, he listens for his father's song to show him the way, The premise of the young runaway and his safe return to the fold have never had a more moving or splendid setting, which ends, as all prodigal stories should, with the father and child soaring into the sunlight as they breach with joy at their reunion. A beautiful parable of parenthood and a splendid salute to the sea.

See also Giana Marino's noted earlier book, Meet Me at the Moon (Viking, 2012).

Sneaking Out: The Big Adventures of the Smalls by Helen Stephens

It was an especially special night. It was the night the Smalls hold a grand ball. Everyone was very busy getting ready.

But the only thing Paul and Sally Small were getting ready for... was bed.

Their splendid rococo mansion is spotless, their long banquet dining table is splendid with the finest china and sterling silver, and their parents are resplendent in tuxedo and ballgown, their servants nervously prepping the fancy food on shiny serving salvers for a polished presentation.

Banished to their nursery far upstairs, Paul and Sally are not sleepy. They just have to have a glimpse og these grand festivities. With Sally leading the way and Paul clutching his favorite teddy, Mr. Puddles, they tiptoe partway down the grand staircase for a peek. But as Paul hangs over the banister for a look at the glittering guests, Mr. Puddles slips from his grasp! Paul and Sally watch in horror as he lands on a huge serving plate upon which a waiter soon slaps a domed cover without seeing the hidden surprise underneath.

The kids have to retrieve Teddy right away, before he gets served up to the diners, or they are in BIG trouble.

So begins The Big Adventure of the Smalls (Aladdin, 2012) by Helen Stephens. Kids will cackle with glee as, with their tagalong pooch along for the fun, the Smalls hoodwink their parents and guests, concealing themselves beneath the banquet table, among the legs of the guests, until they get a chance to snatch Teddy from the server, swinging over the feast on a handy and helpfully ornate chandelier. Making use of drapes, convenient suits of armor, sliding panels, trapdoors to secret passageways, and a co-conspirator of a cook, they manage to avoid detection, or at least identification by their parents, and final]y return themselves and Mr. Puddles to their home base, just in time for the expected bed check.

"Phew!" said Sally. "We got him back...and nobody even saw!"

It's a classic chase tale, every kid's fantasy of spying on the grownups' shindig incognito. Stephens' ornate and stylish illustrative style evokes that of several classic illustrators--Bemelmans, Waber, Ardizone, for example--and extend this stylish text perfectly. Says Publishers Weekly, "Stephens's story casts that rare spell—the feeling of finding a lost childhood favorite."

With My Little Eye: I Spy Under The Sea by Edward Gibbs

"I SPY...SOMETHING WITH A CURLY TAIL.

I AM NAMED AFTER AN ANIMAL YOU CAN RIDE."

A picture-puzzle tempter to touch, pictures you can count on, and written riddles to tease the brain--that's what you can spy under the sea in Edward Gibbs tempting die-cut book, I Spy Under the Sea (Templar/Candlewick Press, 2012) with seven sweet seahorses with spiral tails to enumerate.

There are under-the-sea sightings with a "funny" name--clownfish, critters that walk "sideways"--crabs, and many-armed mollusks (yes, they are mollusks)--otherwise known as octopuses, as well as those popular denizens of the deep--dolphins, swordfish, seals, and, (YIKES!) one sharp-toothed shark looking back hungrily at the reader.

Kids can count down from eight, guess and then discover the critter hinted at and pictured in part through the die-cut circles on each page, and marvel at how the pictures on each double-page view reveal, through the opening, the hinted-at detail of the next picture's ocean resident. It is great vocabulary-building fun as well for the young, complete with engaging digital illustrations and sturdy board covers that finally offer the little reader a chance to view his or her own "habitat" through that magic circle in the back cover. Seaside fun without the sandy feet!

"A clever introduction to ocean life," says Kirkus Reviews.

Watch Your Step! Stonefish--Needles of Pain by Meish Goldish

Stonefish are among the most toxic creatures in the ocean. They are also one of the strangest-looking fish. They get their name from their appearance--they look a lot like stones or rocks. Their bodies have a hard covering that is bumpy and crusty.

Stonefish are unlikely to win any beauty or popularity contests. Equipped by nature with two protective attributes--nearly perfect camouflage and deadly toxins in their spines--they are a danger to humans splashing around in the shallows of the sea in their habitat, principally the shallows waters encircling the Indian Ocean and bordering Indonesia, Malaysia, southern China, and the northern coast of Australia.

When people step on a stonefish, they are injected with venom that is stored in glands under the fish's skin. The venom travels up 13 needle-like spines that are on the fish's back. Each spine is covered with flesh. If someone touches the fish, the spines rise from their fleshy covers and jab the person's skin.

Meish Goldish's recent Stonefish: Needles of Pain (Afraid of the Water) (Bearport, 2009) describes both the absorbing facts about this exotic fish and the dangers of its potentially deadly toxic spines. Full-page photos portray the stunning ability of this species to make themselves invisible in their coral reef habitats, and smoothly written text describes the habitat and behavior of young and mature stonefish.

This appealing photo essay is backed up with advice for immediate care for stings and an appendix which includes a section on "Other Things That Sting" (lionfish and stingrays), an inclusive glossary of special terms introduced in the text, a bibliography and suggested reading list, and index. Additionally, Bearport Publishing also offers a proprietary web site for more information on the animals covered in their new Afraid of the Water series.

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.

Bad Mouthing: Moray Eel--Dangerous Teeth by Meish Goldish

All morays, whether large or small, have extremely dangerous teeth in their mouths. Most kinds have a few rows of curved teeth with tips that are as sharp as needles. The fish's throat, however, is as deadly as its mouth.

Scientists made this discovery recently, in 2007. At the University of California, researcher Rita Mehta filmed a moray eating, using high-speed video. When she played it back in slow motion, she saw something come up quickly from the fish's throat. It was a second set of jaws with sharp teeth.

Among the most popular exhibits in aquariums across the country are the fascinating giant moray eels--long, sinuous, bright-colored, popping violently from crannies with open mouths, filled with needle-like teeth. Meish Goldish's just published Moray Eel: Dangerous Teeth (Afraid of the Water), (Bearport, 2010) provides a close-up look at this amazing predator, found in shallow temperate and tropical waters around the world.

Goldish begins with a couple of pages warning of the danger morays can offer to swimmers, leading off with a case of personal attack on a young diver. Although he points out that morays are shy and rarely attack humans unless threatened, the photograph of a moray bite will remind ocean goers to keep their hands away from possible moray lairs!

The author goes on to describe the feeding habits, habitat, and life cycle of these intriguing animals. Text boxes on each page, full- and double-page spreads feature large color stills of assorted types of morays, maps, and scientific terms in boldface facilitate research and learning, and a final section, "In Case of a Bite," offers information on first aid. The text is backed up with a brief appendix, including "Other Things That Bite" (piranhas and barracudas), a glossary of terms used in the text, references and further reading, and a short index.

There is a lot of intriguing information for elementary and middle readers packed into this 24-page text, made so accessible that youngsters will devour this one like popcorn. Other titles in the Afraid of the Water series include the eye-grabbing Shark: The Shredder (Afraid of the Water).