Jeannie Baker’s informational story about a young boy fishing and discovering the hidden world of the kelp forest is fantastic for preschool age children. The illustrations are collage type pictures created out of different materials and then artistically photographed together so that they all appear realistic and textured. The language in the story is full of new vocabulary describing the kelp forest and animal species that the character encounters while he is diving. It also has a story line that helps show how the main character conquered his fears and learn new fascination information in the process.

Ben 'learned a lesson' about fishing, but he did so a little too easily to be plausible. Also, lots of people, including my family, hunt & fish and still do a lot more to preserve & protect wildlife than many so-called 'green' people - and this book almost implies a dichotomy. Too bad the book is so wordy, relatively speaking - I think it would have worked better if it had been more like [b:Home|407495|Home|Jeannie Baker|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1349007020s/407495.jpg|396815], which is almost wordless. Still, the illustrations are mesmerizing, gorgeous, and effective. ( )

Here is a picture book with very dry prose, and lots of it too. Ben is fishing, his fishing line gets tangled, and he has to dive down to untangle it. While doing this, he discovers how amazingly beautiful it all is. The illustrations are very good, but the book in general is a bit weird. ( )

I book that my six year old daughter came home with from the school library. The book jacket is beautiful showing a diver in a kelp forest. The illustrations are gorgeous and I have actually done scuba diving in a kelp forest so the pictures reminded me of my adventures under the sea. Ben is out fishing in the kelp forest when he loses his fish trap. He wants to retrieve his fish trap so asks help of his friend Sophie to retrieve it. He and Sophie dive down into the kelp forest and they explore.