Helpful Score: 2
I read this book over several days, about 50-100 pages at a time because it's quite large. It was such a wonderful book! Looking at all the things in it almost makes a person wish they could be a mermaid or breathe underwater so that they could explore the beautiful depths of the ocean without the restrictions of SCUBA gear and the hazards of decompression. The pictures of coastlines and underwater forests were just magnificent. Even though they were all strangely beautiful, the plants ranged from colorful to drab to even ugly (after all beauty is in the eye of the beholder). The animals and creatures a mix of the beautiful and also some were downright scary looking that I wouldn't want to run into in dark places! And while some creatures are aptly named, there were times that I just didn't see a resemblance to their namesake. ;P The different "moods" of the ocean are even portrayed when it's both beautiful and terrifying. The ways that some species protect themselves never ceases to amaze, nor does the cohabitation and coexistance of others. My only complaint for the book was that not every area and/or every plant or animal species named was shown by photograph and merely given a description. After all, it was the breathtaking photos themselves that got me to purchase this book in the first place so that was a bit of a disappointment.
