A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"A wonderful classroom and performance resource. The illustrations are full of colour and detail - super opportunities for children to create their own artwork" -- Parents in Touch

Swim with 5 ocean creatures in this colorful, tongue-twisting singalong! Based on a traditional cumulative song, each rhyming verse introduces a new animal and its place in the marine food chain, from the snail to the shark. Chosen as the BookTrust National Bookstart Week book in 2016, this singalong picture book offers a delightful dip into multisensory science learning, sure to inspire young marine biologists. Includes enhanced CD with the catchy tune and an adorable animation!

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Law adapts this familiar cumulative song, replacing the frog and its log with animals more likely to be found in a saltwater environment-and turning the tune into a fun introduction to an undersea food chain. This version opens with a predator: "There's a shark in the hole in the bottom of the sea./ In the dark in the hole in the bottom of the sea." Working in gouache and collage, McDonald (Over in the Meadow) gives the shark a wide, toothy grin and a mischievous gleam in its eye, as jellyfish float nearby and plants sway. The shark is soon joined by an eel, squid, crab, and snail, and subsequent verses mention the roles of seaweed and the sun. As friendly and colorful as McDonald makes these sea creatures and their environs, their interconnected roles as predator and prey are not downplayed-in the final scene, everyone ends up in the shark's belly. Endnotes discuss each link in this particular food chain (and actual undersea holes), and an enhanced CD with audio and video elements is also included. Ages 3-6. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

PreS-Gr 4-Law has taken the traditional folk song and tweaked the words slightly so that it is a vehicle for teaching about the marine food chain, beginning with the shark and ending with seaweed. Back matter includes an explanation of blue holes and of the food chain, a paragraph describing each of the sea creatures featured in the song, and the score. The gouache and collage illustrations picture a bright and sunny underwater world, with vivid shifting shades of blue. A nice addition with a dual purpose.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

A too-long setup leads readers through a repetitious song that enumerates a marine food chain. In Law's adaptation of the traditional cumulative song, there is a shark in the hole in the bottom of the sea. He is joined by an eel, a squid, a crab, a snail and a green weed. Rather than repeating the first, the second line of each verse adds a small rhyming detail--the shark is in the dark, the eel is concealed, the squid hid--increasing the level of difficulty for an already tough-to-sing tune. The sun kicks off the food chain illustrated in the final two double-page spreads. In one, the smiling animals line up, mouths or appendages reaching for their next meal; the other depicts the still-smiling animals inside each other. McDonald's childlike cartoon gouache-and-collage illustrations are a mishmash of textures, colors and patterns that mostly reflect the marine habitat. But the setting is not consistently a hole in the bottom of the sea. Rather, the five animals (and two scuba divers) appear just under a sailboat on the surface. Backmatter provides information about blue holes, food chains, the ocean, and the featured flora and fauna. Sheet music shares the copyright page. The marble-mouthed song, too-cheerful illustrations and disconnect between the song and setting make this one to skip; for a less busy but still child-friendly look at food chains, try Mick Manning's Snap! (2006). (enhanced CD, not seen; sheet music) (Picture book. 3-6)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.