At the Sea Floor Café

Gr 5—9—This collection of 18 poems about marine life begins with an invitation to explore. The first few lines of "Dive In!" read: "Let's visit a habitat shallow and deep/And boiling hot, where acids seep...." The fact that parts of the ocean are boiling hot is just the first of many surprises along the way. The word "odd" in the subtitle is appropriate, since the focus is on animals like the sea spider, which "...sports guts and eggs in its legs." Each poem is accompanied by a paragraph or two of factual information. Some selections are short, others are longer. Endnotes describe the many formal structures the poet uses, from double dactyls to Spenserian stanzas. The attractive design features appealing colors and block-print illustrations. Overall, this book is for an older audience than one would think at first glance. It will probably be best appreciated by middle school age and up, and will be ideal for some classroom settings. With its mix of poems and information, Stephen R. Swinburne's Ocean Soup: Tide-Pool Poems (Charlesbridge, 2010) is similar but for a younger audience.—Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL