BOOK 



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the species mentioned, includes lists of 

 necessary tools and skills in each 

 chapter, and suggests safe ways to 

 handle and return the animals. Archer's 

 detailed drawings, along with clear 

 tables and diagrams, make Discover 

 Nature at the Seashore a useful book 

 for both budding scientists and long- 

 time nature lovers. 



• Porpoises by Andrew Read. 1999. 

 WorldLife Library. Voyageur Press 

 Inc., 123 North Second St., P.O. Box 

 338, Stillwater, MN 55082. 72 pages. 

 Paperback, $16.95. ISBN 0-89658420-8. 



Do you know the difference 

 between a porpoise and a dolphin? You 

 will, after reading this fact-packed 

 book by Read, a Sea Grant researcher 

 and Duke University Marine Labora- 

 tory scientist. 



Read explains that porpoises, 

 though related to dolphins, are from an 

 entirely different family — the 

 Phocoenidae — and that they are not 

 as familiar to many people. Shy, 

 elusive animals, they avoid contact 

 with humans and rarely ride bow- 

 waves or leap into the air like their 

 acrobatic cousins. 



Aided by glossy, full-color 

 photographs, Read describes the six 

 species of porpoise, including the 

 harbor porpoise, Burmeister's porpoise, 

 and the extremely endangered vaquita. 

 He also details the life history of 

 porpoises, noting their exhausting 

 reproductive cycle among other facts 

 — gestation lasts 1 1 months, and 

 females often conceive again within six 

 weeks after giving birth. 



Other chapters cover porpoise 

 behavior and ecology: what they eat, 

 how they use their blubber and what 

 their predators are. With his colleague 

 Andrew Westgate, Read has also 

 tagged and tracked porpoises, using 

 retrievable data tags to measure how 

 deep they dive. 



Read closes with a discussion of 

 porpoise conservation efforts and why 

 they are necessary. Thousands of 

 porpoises die in gill nets every year, 

 and the vaquita may be near extinction. 

 Luckily, some conservation programs 

 are proving successful. 



By the time you close this book, 

 you'll know more about porpoises than 

 you ever did before, and you'll have a 

 new appreciation for the intelligent, 

 social creatures roaming our ocean 

 waters. 



• Until I Saw the Sea: A Collec- 

 tion of Seashore Poems by Allison 

 Shaw. 1995. Henry Holt and Company 

 Inc., 1 15 West 18th St., New York, NY 

 1001 1. 32 pages. Paperback, $6.95. 

 ISBN 0-8050-5794-3. 



Beach lovers and poem readers of 

 all ages will love this bright, colorful 

 book. Brilliant photographs of shells, 

 boats and kids in primary colors — or 

 nothing at all — accompany short 

 poems that capture the salt and rhythm 

 of the ocean. 



Celebrate the sea with old 

 favorites like John Masefield's "Sea 

 Fever" — / must go down to the seas 

 again, to the lonely sea and the sky, / 

 And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to 

 steer her by ... — and new ones, like 

 Myra Cohn Livingston's "Seaweed": 



Seaweed from high tide 



where sand and breakers meet 



gummy 



on my tummy, 



slippery 



on my feet. 



The large typeface and snappy 

 colors make this a perfect match for 

 young readers, and parents can use the 

 photographs to help very small children 

 with their colors. 



With everything from e.e. 

 cummings to traditional ocean lulla- 

 bies, this eye-catching book is a real 

 seaside treasure. 



• An Island Scrapbook: Dawn to 

 Dusk on a Barrier Island by 

 Virginia Wright-Frierson. 1998. Simon 

 and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 

 1 230 Avenue of the Americas, New 

 York, NY 10020. 36 pages. Hardcover, 

 $16.00. ISBN 0-689-81563-8. 



This beautiful book is a work of art 

 from cover to cover. Wright-Frierson, 

 who lives in Wilmington, is an outstand- 

 ing illustrator as well as an author, and 

 her gorgeous watercolors bring the 

 pages to life. 



An Island Scrapbook details a late- 

 summer day spent on one of North 

 Carolina's southernmost barrier islands 

 — home to alligators, cabbage palms, 

 pelicans and fiddler crabs. Wright- 

 Frierson and her daughter Amy pack 

 sketchbooks, pencils and paint and 

 capture the island in all its glory. 



The text is packed with details 

 about the island habitat and its many 

 denizens. Wright-Frierson evokes "the 

 whispers of the rustling cordgrass, the 

 lapping of the tide, the call of a clapper 

 rail, and the skittering and claw-clicking 

 of fiddler crabs." You can almost smell 

 the sea. 



Paintings chronicling a day on the 

 island are interspersed with scrapbook- 

 style pages from a naturalist's sketch 

 pad, noting the effects of hurricanes, the 

 shapes of dolphin and shark fins, sea 

 turtles' foods and the look-alike litter 

 that endangers them. As you join Amy 

 and her mother on their explorations of 

 the mudflats, maritime forest and beach, 

 you'll also learn a lot about loggerhead 

 nests, ocean pollution, marine conserva- 

 tion and the animals that make the 

 seashore their home. 



Recently, An Island Scrapbook was 

 named to the highly acclaimed John 

 Burroughs List of Nature Books for 

 Young Readers. It will make a treasured 

 addition to any beachcomber's book- 

 shelf, keeping the spirit of the sea alive 

 long after summer is over. B 



COASTWATCH 31 



