Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Octonauts & the Sea of Shade
Picture Book Series
For ages 5 to 7
Immedium, 2007 ISBN: 978-1597020107
It is a quiet day in the sea, and the Octonauts are all busy. All except Tweak, who is in a state of panic. Tweak tells his fellow crew members that shadows are disappearing. Professor inkling explains that something must be wrong in the Sea of Shade. This is where King Shade, the king who controls all the shadows in the world, lives. The Octonauts must visit him at once to find out what is going on.
Quickly the Octonauts pack up their submarine and they carefully travel down a deep rift to where the entrance to the Olde Fangled Caves lies. The Octonauts get very disoriented because they cannot tell if they are upside down or right side up. It takes them days to find the way out, but they finally manage it and emerge in a very grim looking place where everything is gray. The travelers see “shadows hiding behind plants and lurking in the corners,” and it is clear as day that something is very wrong in the Sea of Shade.
In this delightful Octonauts title, children are once again able to take a unique journey with Meomi’s intrepid animal characters who take readers to strange, often beautiful, and sometimes frightening places. With incredibly detailed illustrations full of bizarre and wonderful characters, this book is sure to appeal to a wide variety of readers.
