Spotlight on MSBA: The Strangest Thing in the Sea, and Other Curious Creatures of the Deep

This week continues a series of posts spotlighting books from this year's Maine Student Book Award list. If you missed the previous posts, here's a little summary:

Every year, a committee of teachers and librarians from across Maine (this one included), read through hundreds and hundreds of books for young readers to craft a final list of forty titles that students in grades 4 through 8 across the state can read throughout the school year. It's an exciting announcement each spring as we find out which book captured the most young hearts and minds throughout Maine when students vote for their favorites! You can find the award and voting process and the list for the 2022-2023 Maine Student Book Award here. Follow the links at the end of this post to request any of this year's MSBA books from our catalog.

Get your hands ready, because Rachel Poliquin and Byron Eggenschwiler's picture book The Strangest Thing in the Sea, and Other Curious Creatures of the Deep is an interactive feast for the eyes. Every spread in this informational book about creatures of the sea offers a variety of facts about a fascinating denizen of the deep through whimsical first-person narration, giving readers the chance to open the gatefold and discover which underwater being they've been learning about. Throughout, the question "Am I the strangest thing in the sea?" is posed for us to contemplate, all leading up a to a little twist at the book's close. This hands on mystery of the deep is a fun way for kids to learn about some lesser known sea creatures and is backed up by a glossary for further cementing the knowledge. It's a guessing game between two covers, though hats off to you if you can identify a vampire squid by name without opening one of Eggenschwiler's illustrated spreads.

Sometimes information is all about how it's presented, and The Strangest Thing in the Sea is a great example of a book structured in a way that can keep a reader engaged and motivated to learn through an interactive format and humorous tone. It can be pored over individually or shared in a lively group setting. And course we have to decide, what is the strangest thing in the sea? Is it a goblin shark? A pygmy seahorse? If Chickenology is about creatures a little closer to home, The Strangest Thing in the Sea offers an alternative... a deep dive into a world with which we all tend to engage less directly but may nevertheless find incredibly alluring.