Across the Wide Ocean: The Why, How, and Where of Navigation for Humans and Animals at Sea Book

A turtle, a shark, a whale, a submarine, a container ship, and a sailboat named Rosita.

Where are they going?

They're headed across—over, through, and under—the wide ocean.

And you're going with them.

All life began in the oceans, and so much life still remains there, leading an existence mysterious to most of us. In the world's last uncharted frontier, most things are on the move—often a long move. Using maps and charts, oceanography and navigational tools, intrepid explorers and researchers have followed the ocean's pathways and created some of their own. Now it's your turn.

You are holding in your hands the key to a journey—your journey. One teeming with science and adventure, facts and fun, danger and intrigue. A journey that includes diving deep in a submarine, docking a container ship, migrating with right whales, and hunting with sharks. From the ocean floor to the North Pole, the whole ocean awaits you.

Are you ready to dive in?

School Library Journal

Gr 5-7
Readers follow such disparate entities as a loggerhead sea turtle, a nuclear submarine, and a sailboat crew seeking scientific sightings of North Atlantic right whales as Young explores the concept of navigation. Of course, present-day GPS systems can tell humans where they are within a whisker, but in pre-satellite history people had to use the sun, stars, moon, and sea-sturdy clocks to determine their position on our watery planet. Larded with photos, diagrams, and maps, the book also includes small round, colorful information "globules" that bob around the pages like the glass balls once used to float fishing nets, and a "classroom" of tuna (too few for a "school") posing pertinent and/or amusing asides. Deceptively simple in appearance, the informative text can push some intense mental activity for those attempting to master the complexities of magnetic and acoustical influences on animal navigation, the determination of latitude and longitude in pre-GPS days, the difficulties of navigating under polar ice when all directions may be south, and the oddities of "vertical" navigation. Appended are some pages strewn with adult and juvenile titles for further investigation, a short list of pertinent videos/DVDs, and a long list of accessible Web sites (all in very small print and hard to decipher against their "watery" and "sandy" backgrounds. What with sharks and container ships thrown into the mix, this is a colorful look at a subject not often thought about, but one that many will find fascinating when they do.-Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY