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Across the Big Blue Sea: An Ocean Wildlife
Book
Adrift: Seventy Six Days Lost at Sea
Bounty Trilogy
By the Great Horn Spoon!
Call It Courage
The Cay
Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible
Voyage
Into the A, B, Sea: An Ocean Alphabet
Island of the Blue Dolphins
The Magic School Bus On the Ocean Floor
Moby Dick
Out of the Ocean
The Robinson Crusoe
Treasure Island
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
The Voyager’s Stone
Windcatcher
The Wreck of the Waleship Essex, a Narrative
Account
Across the Big Blue Sea: An Ocean
Wildlife Book
by Jakki Wood
National Geographic Society/Simon & Schuster, New York. 1998
Grades: K–3
In this picture book, a young boy launches a tiny red boat
into the ocean off the California coast. The story follows its
travels around the world to the coast of England. Along the way,
the illustrations identify the ocean wildlife and natural objects
the boat passes. Includes a map of the boat’s journey. Although
the book is below the grade level of the guide, students can use
information about currents to decide whether or not the journey
of the toy boat is possible.
Adrift: Seventy Six Days Lost at Sea
by Steven Callahan
Random House, New York. 1996
Grades: 7–Adult
After his small sloop capsizes only six days into his solo voyage
around the world, Steven Callahan, floating in an inflatable raft,
has to fight for his life. He is racked by hunger, buffeted by
storms, and broiled by the tropical sun. He fights off sharks
with a makeshift spear and watches nine ships pass by. This is
the true story of the only man in history to have survived more
than a month alone at sea.
Bounty Trilogy
by Charles Nordoff and James Norman Hall
Little, Brown and Co., Boston. 1995
Grades: 7–Adult
These three novels are classics of historical fiction and deal
with events stemming from the mutiny of the HMS Bounty. The
first, Mutiny on the Bounty, depicts the horrific struggle
to round Cape Horn against wind and tide and the Bounty's
final failure to do so, conditions which led to the infamous mutiny.
The second volume, Men Against the Sea, is the incredible
account of the 3600-mile voyage taken by Captain Bligh and 18
loyal men who were set adrift in the Pacific by the mutineers
in the ship's long boat. The third volume, Pitcairn's Island,
is the narrative of those mutineers who escaped capture and
found refuge on an idyllic Pacific island.
By the Great Horn Spoon!
by Sid Fleischman; illustrated by Eric von Schmidt
Little, Brown and Co., Boston. 1988
Grades: 4–8
In this adventure novel about sailing from Boston around Cape
Horn to the California gold rush, several passages exemplify the
way density figures into the gold panning process.
Call It Courage
by Armstrong Sperry
Aladdin, New York. 1971
Grades: 3–6
Based on a Polynesian legend, this chapter book for older
students tells the story of a young boy who overcomes his fear
of the sea and proves his courage to himself and his tribe. The
story illustrates his culture’s connection to the ocean.
The Cay
by Theodore Taylor
William Morrow, New York. 1991
Grades: 6–8
When the freighter on which they are traveling is torpedoed
by a German submarine during World War II, Phillip, an eleven-year-old
white boy, blinded by a blow on the head during the explosion,
and an old West Indian named Timothy are cast up on a very small
Caribbean island—a cay. This is the story of their struggle
for survival, and of Phillip’s efforts to adjust to his blindness
and to overcome his prejudice and understand the dignified, wise,
and loving old man. Timothy of the Cay, the sequel to this book,
is also recommended.
Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle
by Felicia Law; illustrated by Judy Brook
Andre Deutsch, Great Britain. 1985
(distributed by E.P. Dutton, New York)
Grades: 4–8
The story of a cabin boy who goes along on Charles Darwin’s
five-year voyage. He assists Darwin with his collections of insect,
bird, and marine life specimens. The format is oversized, with
many drawings, charts, and maps.
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible
Voyage
by Alfred Lansing
Carroll & Graf, New York. 1999
Grades: 7–Adult
A fast-paced and thrilling chronicle of Shackleton's epic
Antarctic survival adventure.
Into the A, B, Sea: An Ocean Alphabet
by Deborah Lee Rose; illustrated by Steve Jenkins
Scholastic, New York. 2000
Grades: K–3
The delightful rhyming text combine with the vivid cut-paper
illustrations to give the reader a tour of the ocean and its inhabitants—from
Anemone to Zooplankton. Each verse succinctly captures its creature’s
unique attribute—"…where kelp forests sway and
leopard sharks prey…" A glossary provides further information
on each animal, and a teacher’s supplement is available.
Although intended for a young audience, this book is useful for
learning about the variety of marine organisms.
Island of the Blue Dolphins
by Scott O’Dell; illustrated by Ted Lewin
Houghton Mifflin, Boston. 1990
Grades: 5–12
Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast
of California, a young Native American girl spends eighteen years,
not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance,
but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.
Interwoven are descriptions of the island, of fish and ocean vegetation,
animals and plants. The way she interacts with nature to survive,
hunt, build shelter, and design clothing, both as she had been
taught by her people and as she develops her own technological
and artistic skills, is a particularly strong aspect of the book.
The Magic School Bus On the Ocean Floor
by Joanna Cole; illustrated by Bruce Degen
Scholastic, New York. 1992
Grades: 1–4
In her own predictable style, Ms. Frizzle takes her class
on a field trip to the ocean (though the students expected a trip
to the beach). The class explores many different ocean habitats
and learns about the organisms in each. In one of the reports
along the edge of the page, a student discusses the "rivers"
in the ocean—the ocean currents.
Moby Dick
by Herman Melville
Viking Penguin, New York. 1996
Grades: 7–Adult
The full version of this classic novel of the obsessed Captain
Ahab may prove daunting for your students. The abridged version
removes the sections that detail life aboard a whaling ship and
concentrates on the fate of the Pequod. That said, Ahab's
tracking of Moby Dick follows ocean currents nearly around the
world.
Out of the Ocean
by Debra Frasier
Harcourt Brace and Company, San Diego. 1998
Grades: Preschool–3
As a young girl and her mother walk along an Eastern Florida
beach, they marvel at the many treasures cast up by the sea and
the wonders of the world around them. Detailed and illustrated
pages at the end of the book give information about the items
found. One of the items is a note-filled bottle and ocean currents
are discussed. Although for younger students, the book is great
for extolling the riches of the ocean.
The Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe
Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, New York. 1995
Grades: 7–Adult
Consistently popular since its first publication in 1719,
this is the classic story of a young man who sets sail for a life
of adventure in far away places. Fleeing pirates, he is swept
ashore a deserted tropical island and must learn how to survive
and deal with his isolation.
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, New York. 1988
Grades: 7–Adult
Originally published in 1883, this is the classic tale of
adventure on the high seas and the search for buried treasure
featuring such characters as the young and honest cabin boy Jim
Hawkins, the sinister Israel Hands, and the hero-villain Long
John Silver.
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
by Avi
Avon, New York. 1990
Grades: 5–8
In the summer of 1832 aboard a ship crossing the Atlantic
from England to America, thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle—the
only passenger on the ship—finds herself caught between a
ruthless captain and a mutinous crew. This book is her account
of that voyage which tests her courage and her will to survive.
The Voyager’s Stone: The Adventures
of a Message-Carrying Bottle Adrift on the Ocean Sea
by Robert Kraske; illustrated by Brian Floca
Orchard Books, New York. 1995
Grades: 3–6
A message-carrying bottle, thrown into the sea by a boy vacationing
in the Caribbean, makes its way eastward in the Atlantic, then
south to Antarctica, and onward to Australia, where it is discovered
by an Aborigine girl. Through the bottle’s voyage, oceanography
is explored—covering such topics as currents, animals, and
the variety of life found along the margins of the world’s
oceans.
Windcatcher
by Avi
William Morrow, New York. 1992
Grades: 4–7
While learning to sail during a summer visit to his grandmother’s
house on the Connecticut shore, eleven-year-old Tony becomes excited
about the rumors of sunken treasure in the area and starts following
a couple who seem to be making a mysterious search for something.
The Wreck of the Waleship Essex, a
Narrative Account
by Owen Chase, First Mate;
edited by Iola Haverstick and Betty Shepard
Harcourt, Brace & World, New York. 1965
Grades: 7–Adult
A firsthand account of the tragedy of the whaler Essex
if somewhat self-serving.
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