Exploring Our Connection With The Ocean
by Ann Eriksson
Orca Book Publishers, 2018
ISBN 978-1-4598-1586-5 (hc)
$19.95, 48 pp, ages 9 – 12
orcabook.com
Part of the Orca “Footprints” series, Dive In! is the product of a self-described prairie-born “thalassophile” (ocean lover) who first learned to scuba dive as an adult. Ann Eriksson is a marine biologist brimming with knowledge, and this work nearly overflows with information. Students will learn of the troposphere, the Great Conveyor current, as well as the oceans’s diverse flora and fauna (and that is just in the first dozen pages). Over the rest of the work the author travels the Seven Seas explaining how the ocean is part of everyone’s environment, and she offers practical ideas for young activists seeking solutions to plastic pollution, invasive species, and dead zones. This is a wonderful mixture of pure science, ecology, and conservation that is delivered in a very personal way (Eriksson, for example, provides pictures of her own family members in ocean-related activities including her father, herself, spouse Gary, their children, and even a pair of smiling granddaughters). The author’s obvious passion for the subject is infectious, and students across the world will likely gladly accept the invitation to join her in the emerging quest to turn the ocean back into an unspoiled habitat.
Classroom Connections: This work includes more than a dozen sidebars (either “ocean facts” or mini-biographies entitled “My Marine Life”), some one hundred colour photographs, along with an accompanying list of recent print and online resources, a concise glossary, and extensive index. Orca Book Publishers also has an accompanying “Footprints Teacher Guide” with unit and lesson plans, as well as classroom activities, that can be used with print or electronic formats of Dive In!
Review by George Sheppard.
This review is from Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Spring 2019 issue.