Starred Review Like its companion books, My Light (2004) and Living Sunlight (2009), this richly illustrated, densely informative picture book is narrated by the sun. The opening pages condense information conveyed in the previous book, explaining how the energy of its light supports life on our planet. Next, this volume goes where few picture books have gone before, introducing children to the ocean's microscopic phytoplankton, "the great invisible pasture of the sea," which supplies half the oxygen created on Earth and forms an essential part of the sea's food chains. Moving from decoratively patterned scenes of sunlit trees and grasses into the depths of the ocean, the artwork becomes increasingly varied, intricate, and mysterious. While the opening pages on photosynthesis and food chains attempt to cover too much too quickly, the longer sections on phytoplankton and marine snow are quite successful, helping children understand and visualize vital processes taking place, unseen, within the oceans. In this section Bang's paintings feature precisely delineated images, dramatic juxtaposition of light and dark, and creative use of interconnected pictures within pictures. Best used in conjunction with the previous volumes, this ambitious, beautifully illustrated book offers information seldom covered in science books for young children.

An awe-inspiring lesson in photosynthesis goes under the sea. As in this pair's previous Living Sunlight (2009), the sun addresses readers to explain the role of solar energy to support the chain of life--this time in the ocean. A summary of the process of photosynthesis occupies the first few spreads. Warm yellow sunlight suffuses these pages and small insets accompany the textual explanation of how plants make sugar from water and carbon dioxide. Then the focus moves to the sea, first near the surface, where phytoplankton grow and multiply, and then to the depths, where nutrient-rich marine "snow" sifts down to feed creatures who live away from sunlight. The transformation of sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into phytoplankton ("the great invisible pasture of the sea"), on which feed zooplankton and progressively larger animals, is set against background paintings of rich marine blues and greens. The churning and recycling of these nutrients is shown again to be a gift of the sun: "My sunlight powers winds that build great storms and mix the water layers of the seas." Bang's art is richly kinetic, with its whorls and stipples indicating plant and animal life in profusion, from the swirling microscopic creatures to graceful large fish and whales. Readers will want to visit more than once to capture both the science and the abundant sense of celebration here. (Informational picture book. 5-11)

This fresh perspective on food chains focuses on the critical and voluminous ocean-based plant life--plankton--and the transfer of energy and nutrients from the sun to these microscopic plants to ocean animals and back. Glowing illustrations, age-appropriate explanations, well-chosen text and visual analogies, and a series of rhetorical questions are used to excellent effect. Six pages of notes are appended.

An awe-inspiring lesson in photosynthesis goes under the sea. As in this pair's previous Living Sunlight (2009), the sun addresses readers to explain the role of solar energy to support the chain of life--this time in the ocean. A summary of the process of photosynthesis occupies the first few spreads. Warm yellow sunlight suffuses these pages and small insets accompany the textual explanation of how plants make sugar from water and carbon dioxide. Then the focus moves to the sea, first near the surface, where phytoplankton grow and multiply, and then to the depths, where nutrient-rich marine "snow" sifts down to feed creatures who live away from sunlight. The transformation of sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into phytoplankton ("the great invisible pasture of the sea"), on which feed zooplankton and progressively larger animals, is set against background paintings of rich marine blues and greens. The churning and recycling of these nutrients is shown again to be a gift of the sun: "My sunlight powers winds that build great storms and mix the water layers of the seas." Bang's art is richly kinetic, with its whorls and stipples indicating plant and animal life in profusion, from the swirling microscopic creatures to graceful large fish and whales. Readers will want to visit more than once to capture both the science and the abundant sense of celebration here. (Informational picture book. 5-11)

As she did in Living Sunlight and My Light, Bang creates a character out of the sun, this time focusing on its role in the ocean-s ecosystems: -My light-energy,/ first caught by phytoplankton,/ flows through/ the ocean-s chains of life.- Bang creates dimension and visual drama with her use of gold, blues, and black, forming an ethereal habitat for phytoplankton, jellyfish, and bioluminescent creatures. The sense of movement underscores the message about energy transfer between plants and animals. Ages 4-8. (May)

Gr 3-5 Bang and Chisolm have written about the sun before, Bang in My Light (2004) and the pair in Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life (2009, both Scholastic). Here they turn their attention to the ocean and its vast population of phytoplanktonthe widespread "meadow" of the sea. The simple text follows the food chain from the tiniest of green plants (powered into life by the sun) to the biggest predators dependent on plankton-gobblers for food. The authors explain photosynthesis and the ocean layer exchange wrought by sunlight-driven currents, and even touch on the life below, where the strongest sunbeam cannot reach. Bang's stylized, dynamic illustrations are a perfect foil for the well-spaced text superimposed upon them. Some will balk at the book's opening statement: "All ocean life depends on me" (the sun), being aware of the strange world of thermal vents, colonized by bacteria capable of converting chemical compounds into food, many existing in a biome with equally unique life-forms that abound in this eerie, dark environment. In the extensive "Notes About This Book" section Bang explains "There are so many important, related concepts that we could not possibly cover them all in this book." However, she does provide much further information on the topics raised in the text, sure to be a boon to classroom teachers, homeschoolers, and puzzled parents alike. Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY