WorldCat is the world's largest library catalog, helping you find library materials online.
Description
This lyrical and beautifully illustrated narrative nonfiction book explores the wild wonders of the sea, tracing how the currents of our big blue planet converge as one.
Two children and their grandmother discover a \"sea heart\" on the beach: a smooth, round bean the size of one child's palm, which has traveled the world on the Gulf Stream's current. The trio traces the bean's wondrous journey on a map—through seagrass meadows brimming with turtles and tiger sharks, coral reefs, underwater mountains traversed by whales, and kelp forests bobbing with seals—until it washes up, a full year later, on their rainy beach in Scotland.
Narrative nonfiction at its best and most beautiful, this companion to One World: 24 Hours on Planet Earth from zoologist Nicola Davies and award-winning artist Jenni Desmond is a fluid, well-researched story about the way currents connect us all to the vast ocean that colors our planet blue. Tackling, too, the global impact of humans on the ocean—especially the perils of plastic—the book employs fascinating facts, gentle urgency, and specific conservation success stories to point a wise and hopeful path forward.
PreS-Gr 3--Zoologist Davies and illustrator Desmond team up again to create another magical tale of Earth. This time, through the journey of a seed from the warm waters of the Caribbean to the cold waters off the coast of Scotland, they show readers the beauty and diversity of "wild waters underneath the waves." The same two cheerful, dark-skinned children from One World: 24 Hours on Planet Earth return, this time visiting their light-skinned grandmother at her remote, thatch-roofed beach house. Daily, they explore the nearby beach, looking for treasures from the ocean. When they find a very large seed, called a seed heart, their grandmother tells them of the seed's journey across the Atlantic, and the children imagine themselves in each ocean habitat, from seagrass meadows to kelp forests, interacting with the marvelous creatures that live there. When it starts to rain, the three retreat inside to draw a map of the seed's journey and learn about the importance of the ocean's currents that nourish life and dictate Earth's weather. The story concludes with a reminder of the damage that humans have done to the ocean as well as possible actions humans can take--and what steps they have taken already--to help the oceans heal. Desmond's illustrations perfectly capture the curiosity and wonder of the children as well as the marvels of the ocean. VERDICT This factual and life-affirming book celebrates our ocean and reminds us to keep it healthy and wild.--Sally James
Copyright 2026 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Nicola Davies is a zoologist and an award-winning author whose many books for children include Surprising Sharks, Extreme Animals, and Gaia Warriors. She lives in Wales. Emily Sutton has a degree in illustration from Edinburgh College of Art. She says, "Illustrating Tiny Creatures has opened my eyes to the incredible and unexpected beauty of a world so small that it can't be seen without a microscope. I was amazed by the variety and complexity of microbes, and I loved drawing all of their intricate details and patterns." She lives in York, England.
