Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea | Book Review

★★★★★

​I loved the depth meter on each page

5 Star | Children's | Educational | Non-Fiction | Science

​The author explores the ocean from the surface to 35,838 feet down and some of the creatures that live at each depth. 

​We are introduced to the earth from space, then descend to above the surface of the western Pacific Ocean and some of the animals that live above the surface, like an Albatross and some of the animals that break the surface of the water to fly in the air above for a moment, such as the Flying Squid and Spinner Dolphins. 

Now we are below the surface of the water, in the sunlit zone. At 10 feet, 33 feet, 164 and 330 feet, we learn about more creatures at each depth, such as mackeral, the mola mola, the whale shark and compass jellyfish. The author doesn't just introduce us to creatures at each depth though, he also explains how the water pressure increases the further you go down. He also provided a depth meter on the right side of each set of pages to show just how far the readers have traveled under the surface and the temperature there.

At 660 feet we have hit the twilight zone and the creatures have begun to look a bit unusual, such as the goblin shark. Traveling down to 1,640 feet the animals start to glow in the dark. The author even shows us what these creatures would look like without explorers bringing their own illumination. 

Welcome to the dark zone, starting at 3,300 feet below the surface. With creatures such as the pram bug, deep-sea lizardfish, loosejaw spotlight fish it's a good thing we don't have to worry about these eerie looking animals. We even learn about a giant that can dive as deep as 10,000 feet for it's meal. Here we also meet the animals that live on the abyssal plain and hydrothermal vents at 13,000 feet. Finally we reach 35,838 feet, the furthest explorers have reached and yeah, there's creatures here too! I just wish that the author had included some information mentioning that this isn't the deepest part of the ocean. His material gives that impression but this is just how deep explorers have been able to dive, not how deep it actually is. 

With this being a science based book, the author does mention evolutionist ideas, such as millions of years (section Ooze) and how 'it's even possible that life on our planet began in a place like this' (section Turn Up the Heat). 

This book was so neat in the way it was presented and what it covered. The art wasn't drawn, but was I believe a paper collage art which was done very nicely. I liked how it was different from other books on that front as well. Throughout the book, each section only has about a paragraph or two of information. This isn't much, but when you get to the back of the book, the author provides diagrams of each page with additional information about the creatures, size comparisons and the types of vessels that can explore each depth we traveled through. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this uniquely presented book and would add it to my collection. 

Buy from Amazon

---

Thank you for trusting us with your book!
​Please know that we use affiliate links when you choose to purchase from our site. Your support helps us to continue discovering more books worth reading for you.