Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Seven Seas: Exploring the World Ocean
Illustrator: Higgins Bond
Nonfiction Picture Book
For ages 7 to 10
Walker Books for Young Readers, 2003 ISBN: 978-0802788337
Let us look at the history of our planet from a different point of view. Instead of looking at things from a land-based perspective, let's look at how the world's "Seven Seas" have influenced our planet. Let us see how the world and how the living things that live in it have been affected by these enormous bodies of water.
We begin our journey in the Arctic. When this sea froze 13,000 years ago huge areas of land were exposed making it possible for animals and humans to migrate into the Americas. Hundreds of years later people from Europe began their first forays across the great Atlantic Ocean and later still Ferdinand Magellan crossed huge distances across many seas. His ship was the first to circumnavigate the globe. For many the world?s sea offered a way of making a living, and for some it offered up a way for taking a living - through piracy.
More recently seas and oceans have given humans the means to make all kinds of discoveries about our past and to recognize that these fascinating bodies of water may indeed hold the key to our future.
In addition to the fascinating historical journey that we make as we read this book, we are also given a picture of the extraordinary natural wonders that exist in the worlds Seven Seas. Barrier reefs, deep oceanic trenches, and huge underwater mountain ranges are just a few of the things that the author describes in this highly informative and beautifully illustrated portrait of the Earth's seas and oceans.
