The Secret Bay (Tilbury House Nature Book)

by Kimberly Ridley, Rebekah Raye (Illustrator)

Overview

AWARDS: *Moonbeam Silver*, *John Burroughs Association Riverby 2016 Award*
Estuaries form where river meets sea and fresh water mixes with salt. Teeming with life, these places of salt marshes, mudflats, and tidal backwaters serve as nursery areas for oceangoing fish, migratory stopovers for shorebirds, and homes for an amazing diversity of snails, bivalves, fish, mammals, horseshoe crabs, fiddler and blue crabs, terrapin turtles, plankton, and many others, all of whom we meet in the pages of this delightful book.

Narrated in the poetic voice of the estuary itself, and accompanied by natural-history sidebars about estuary plants, animals, and cycles, THE SECRET BAY is another topnotch nature book from the author and illustrator of the award-winning, bestselling The Secret Pool.

• A stand-alone book and a stunning companion volume to Ridley and Raye’s award-winning Secret Pool.
• Ridley deftly augments the estuary’s lyrical narrative voice with sidebars about the plants, animals, and natural processes of an estuary.
• Raye’s gorgeous watercolors reveal new features and hidden treats with each reading.
• Back matter includes The Estuary Food Web, Great Escapes (how estuary animals avoid predators), and an author’s note about the challenges facing estuaries.
• A perfect book for the budding naturalist and for his or her parents and teachers.

Fountas & Pinnell Level S

Lexile 1180

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780884484349
Publisher:	Tilbury House Publishers
Publication date:	10/08/2015
Series:	Tilbury House Nature Book Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	59 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Science writer Kimberly Ridley is an award-winning author of nonfiction books for children. Her joy is sharing her love of nature and writing with children through her books and school visits. Kimberly’s picture books, The Secret Pool (Kirkus starred review) and The Secret Bay, have received honors including Riverby Awards from the John Burroughs Association for “outstanding natural history books for young people.” Her newest book is THe Secret Stream A former magazine editor, Kimberly has written for publications including The Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, and Downeast Magazine. She holds an MS in Science Journalism.
Rebekah Raye is an artist beloved for her bird and animal paintings and sculpture, derived from her affinity with the natural world around her studio in East Blue Hill, Maine. In Rebekah’s words, “My early interest in animals of all kinds continues to be the focus of my painting and sculpture. Our pet chickens, geese, and cats—as well as the wild fox, bobcat, crows, and deer—are my inspiration. The more I learn about the animals I paint, the more I understand how we are all related.” Rebekah’s award-winning children’s books include The Very Best Bed, Bear-ly There, The Secret Pool, and Swimming Home, all published by Tilbury House.

Editorial Reviews

08/31/2015
Told from the perspective of an estuary, this rhyming story (a follow-up to The Secret Pool) explores the animal and plant life within this habitat. Among the subjects covered are horseshoe crabs, mummichogs (also known as mud minnows), “Midges, mosquitoes, and big greenhead flies,” among many others. Although Ridley’s verse can be a tad corny in places, and Raye’s illustrations waver between polished and more roughly sketched, they combine to convey a marshland brimming with life: “Cordgrass is swishing all over my shores./ Pickleweed covers my soft, sandy floors.” Detailed sidebars and extensive back matter provide a wealth of information about the creatures that make their home in tidal estuaries. Ages 6–11. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

2015-07-15
Facts about estuaries are accompanied by pages that often include rhymes and always include watercolor illustrations. "You'll find me right here, where river meets ocean / shining and muddy and always in motion. / Grass, mud, and water might be all that you see, / but don't be fooled—there is much more to me!" Similar clumsy verses abound, complemented by prose paragraphs that explain and expand on the verse. Although many of the watercolors are colorful and well-executed, it is sometimes hard to read the text printed over the art—especially tiny names of flora and fauna. Some fascinating information is communicated through fairly sophisticated prose, as in the passage about how halophytes (salt-loving plants) have adapted to brackish water: "While pickleweed stores excess salt in compartments in its leaves, smooth cordgrass ‘spits out' extra salt through special pores. Look closely at blades of smooth cordgrass, and you can see salt crystals." This is followed by another, seemingly obligatory, pair of bad couplets—an unfortunate pattern in the book. In a similar vein, the glossary contains words already well-explained in the text, such as "plankton," but fails to define the unexplained word "spawn." The importance of preserving all players in the estuary ecosystem does come out clearly, and there are interesting tidbits of word derivation, as well as a lively section about how various animals avoid/escape predators. Wade past the subpar poetry to find some good science. (list of estuarine animals and plants, author's note) (Informational picture book. 7-11)

Kirkus Reviews