LIFE ON EARTH: OCEAN

Questions and answers about our planet’s saltwater flora, fauna, and habitats.

Like the other entries in the Life on Earth series, it’s a flap-lifter’s delight, with multiple die-cut flaps on every heavy stock page that are so tightly integrated into Lozano’s brightly hued cartoon scenes and images of undersea life that they are often a challenge first to spot and then to pry up. The revealed answers cover topics including why oceans are salty, whether sea cucumbers are vegetables and sea sponges animals or plants, how oysters make pearls, and whether T. Rex or turtles came first. Each of the eight double-page spreads presents questions on a general theme such as shells, sharks, or coral reefs. The coverage is sometimes unsystematic (the smallest shark gets a nod, for instance, but not the largest), and occasionally Alexander oversimplifies (seaweed does have roots, of a sort). Nevertheless, readers will come away with a better knowledge of and appreciation for the oceans’ vasty deeps and denizens. Human figures are rare but equally divided between light- and dark-skinned.

A broad, if ankle-deep, wade into the ocean.