dk books

Customer Review:

Review by: John Legge, 05 June 2012

'Really good book to give an overview of the oceans and the wildlife found there. Illustrations and photos are colourful and appealing to young children (my four year old spend hours shouting out ''shark'', ''penguin, ''nemo fish'' etc, as we read it together and then when he sat reading it on his own). This book is also suitable for helping with projects on food chains, habitats etc, as it contains a lot of detailed information. The only area it could possibly expand on would be more information on plant life and more species. Saying that though, this book is great value and and was thoroughly enjoyed by myself and my children.'

Customer Review:

Review by: K. Norman, 05 June 2012

'We are always on the look out for factual books that don''t bore my eight year old - she loves fiction but it is much harder to find factual books presented in a way that appeals to her. And to be honest our experience of most factual books is so-so photographs and either too much dense text, or too little disjointed text dotted in a random sequence around the page. My first impression of Look Closer Ocean was that it would be another one that she just passed by, especially as she isn''t particularly interested in nature, but to my surprise the book really works. It is dynamic in a way that we haven''t see often before, and I had missed at first glance. The book is divided into two double spreads per topic, with titles such as ''Penguin party'', ''Coral reef'' and ''Battle zone''. The first is a huge CGI picture. At first I thought that the simplicity of the pictures would be a drawback - they show large images or a few animals rather than the intricate details of spotter type books that usually hold our attention. But the pictures provide interest and interaction through 5 to 15 key features - might be different species or important features of the animals or habitat shown. Although a simple device this did indeed hold my daughter''s attention! In the second double spread the big picture is faded out and featured parts of it pop out of bubbles in the page. This clever approach focuses attention on these parts and their associated text, which is informative, without being dense. On closer inspection this flows well because the previous page has introduced the reader to the key features, and then sticks to them for more details - which shows that the construction of each topic has been carefully thought out. There are box outs of related information - so on the ''Top Predator'' page about the great white shark, the box out gives photos and information on other shark species. Throughout the book facts float out of the page in little bubbles - from the important to know but commonly known "Dolphins are not fish but air-breathing mammals just like us" to the obscure but fascinating. Did you know that Spermaceti oil is used to oil the moving parts of spacecraft in the extreme cold of outer space? All in all a surprisingly engaging book that gave much more than my first impressions thought it would.'

Customer Review:

Review by: Susie Groom, 24 May 2012

'''What lies beneath'' is intriguing in this colourful ''Look Closer Ocean'' book. From the delicate and delightful little seahorses to the scary sharks, they are all photographed and explained. Who would believe that the walrus only eats shellfish using its whiskers to feel for them on the sea bed. Fascinating for all readers from children to their parents!'