Seashore

This is another excellent entry in the Eyewitness Books series, this time authored by Steve Parker. The book begins with context, noting that with so much of the Earth covered by water, there will, obviously, be large slivers of beach. The author notes that shores are strange places, "being the edge of the land as well as the edge of the sea." The book begins by noting the forces that have shaped the shore, from surf, to tide, to corrasion (a term that I had never run across before--meaning that boulders and sand are thrown by the sea against the shore and, thus, change it). There is a lucid discussion of different types of rocks one can find along the seashore. Shores have a lot of life, from plants (such as lavender, thyme [I didn't know that!], flowers) to animal life (such as tide-pool fish such as clingfish, butterfish, and goby) to, of course, sea shells. Flower-like animals, such as anemones and jellyfish (I still remember my first foray into the Atlantic Ocean ending with a rapid retreat to shore as a jellyfish "stung" me) and sea stars and so on. All in all, this will be a great "read" for the young. Or even younger children would appreciate their parents reading this to them, showing the wonderful diagrams, before the kid can read. Nice way of parent-child bonding. . . .

The seashore is at the edge of the land going out to sea. Yes, but, it is also that exact meeting point of the sea and the shore, the feminine and the masculine, the yin and the yang, water and earth. Not meaning to get mystical, but doesn't the seashore strike you that way? Perhaps that's why we have the myth of Poseiden and mermaids. Perhaps that is why life teems at this meeting of land and sea. "Eyewitness Seashore" shows the reader how water meets shore and how water shapes that shore. Evidence of high tides, low tides, and rock composition can be read in the sides of standing rocks and cliffs across the planet where water meets shore. Algae, limpits, barnacles, kelp, oysters--all thrive right at the edge of water. Do you know there are seaweed forests underwater in some parts of the world? Then just a few inches further landward and a whole new line of life emerges: the seashells. Then come the tide pools filled with all manner of life, including fish. Now we're back into the sea to discover the anemones, so many kinds. Then come the jellyfish and corals and the spiny-skinned creatures. And the borers and builders and crabs and lobsters. Now Eyewitness takes us to the birds perched on ledges overseeing the seashore. Cormorants, puffins, and there are squid and sea otters and finally, man as beachcomber and preserver, historian and artist.

My family and I spend our summer weekends boating and exploring the shores of islands in Narragansett Bay (RI). We see many things and my 7 year old son asks questions I don't always have the answers for. This book helps us identify what we are looking at and gives us a brief dessciption of each. We love this book. We also bought Oceans (DK Eyewitness Book).

This is a good book because it studys life on the seashore and things that live on it, like sea stars and crabs.