The Aquarium Book

Children's Literature - Meredith Kiger

This book reinforces the notion that aquariums must be experienced in person to be useful sources of knowledge on marine life and to foster the enjoyment of strange animals and their habitats. The book depicts, through colorful photography, various aspects of life in four aquariums around the United States. However, the lack of organization and establishment of a central idea both textually and visually provides little understanding to one who has never visited an aquarium. A useful list of aquariums around the United States appears at the end of the book for those interested in becoming a visitor. 1994 (orig.

School Library Journal

Gr 2-5-- Ancona takes readers on a tour through the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the New York Aquarium on Coney Island, the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, and the New England Aquarium in Boston, describing the public displays as well as the behind-the-scenes activities that keep the places running. His photographs and text begin with the four entryways, all different but each designed to separate our terrestrial world from the marine realm about to be entered. In a picture-book format with many photographs on each page, the pictures and text show how the aquariums are set up, the educational displays they offer, and what sort of things a visitor will see. Some pages are arranged almost like a high school yearbook with bright little color photographs of the captive inhabitants carefully labeled with their names, common and Latin. The workers who keep the water clean and the animals healthy are also featured. Called aquarists, these caretakers are seen trimming bird claws and feeding the beluga whales. At the Monterey Bay Aquarium there's a marine version of the petting zoo, and children can stick their hands in shallow water and pick up sea stars and urchins, and stroke bat rays (with stingers removed). Other U.S. aquariums are listed. --Frances E. Millhouser, Reston Regional Lib., VA