BEACH MYSTERIES

Name: BEACH MYSTERIES
Price: £16.38 GBP
Author: Anne Hotchkis
ISBN: 9781481706421

by Anne Hotchkis

Formats

Softcover

£16.38

Softcover

£16.38

Book Details

Language : English

Publication Date : 17/01/2013

Format : Softcover

Dimensions : 8.5x11

Page Count : 60

ISBN : 9781481706421

About the Book

You will be delighted with this interactive book of poetry and marine biology on the shorelines of the Northumberland Strait. This book is meant for anyone who has ever beachcombed somewhere. The joy and mysteries of the intertidal creatures and seaweed are woven into wondrous poems from the author’s childhood memories; then it is your turn to answer questions on your adventures. This book is meant to be used as a fun-filled guidebook for the whole family or for students aged nine and up. Interested in what’s on the beach when the tide goes out? Read and work right on the beach with Beach Mysteries. Have an exploration you’ll never forget.

About the Author

Anne Hotchkis has published three previous books of poetry: Seeking Home in Poems and Prose (1998), Poetry Throughout the Ages and Stages of Life (2011), and Beachcombing Along the Northumberland Strait (2011). She spent her career teaching elementary school. Her education includes a B.Sc. in Biology, a B.Ed., and a M.Ed. in Literacy. Presently she is retired and devoting free time to a variety of writing projects. Beach Mysteries is an interactive, interdisciplinary project that has kept her youthful memories alive. Why would readers be interested in this book? It is fun and solves mysteries of the beach. It gives the reader an in-depth view of sea life living under their feet as they walk the beach when the tide is out. It also reaffirms what they read with delightful questions for them to answer along their beach journey.

Customer Reviews

"Anne, your Beach Mysteries book is unique, fresh and delightful. Your writing engages the reader's surprise and interest in and caring for the inhabitants of the Northumberland Strait. My granddaughter loved it and liked the idea that she was just the right age for it, being 9 of last October. She loves poetry, has a journal of her own writings and computer print outs of poets and poems that she loves. I must tell you that Mei loves the grizzly and gruesome and the unusual so reacted quite enthusiastically with shivers to the dicing and slicing of the jellyfish."

Katy Mann
"It is a given that the ocean has always had a mesmerizing effect on the creative soul. It is not surprising then, that poet Anne Hotchkis should express her love for the shores of the Northumberland Strait by writing a collection of poetry. But Beach Mysteries is more than just poetry. Hotchkis also has a background in Marine Biology and taught elementary school for years so the book is also a textbook albeit a textbook for the soul. Each poem describes an element from the ocean shore, from starfish to the undersea world of seaweed floating with ""the sparkle of sunshine."" Each of the thirteen poems is accompanied by a photograph and a short quiz to help younger readers take to memory what they have experienced.

Some of the poems like ""Purple Jello/Red Shoestring Licorice"" about jellyfish, are tactile, fun- ""wobblier wobbly woo"" and will appeal to children. Others, such as ""Imprisonment to Freedom"", about the hermit crab, are mature, more philosophical and geared to adults. The mixture invites the young and the old to experience this book together, preferably on the beach on a summer's day. Can't think of a better way to enjoy what Beach Mysteries has to offer. "

Diane Wallace
"The attractions of beaches have always been rather a mystery to me, coming as I do from a part of the world where sandy shores are in short supply. Anne Hotchkis understands that even youngsters who grow up with beaches in their backyards may need some guidance if they are to appreciate the wonders to be found there. Beach Mysteries encourages the young reader to linger, look, and learn about the riches of the Island coastline. To that end, each of the brief poems is prefaced by a beautifully rendered photograph; and each is followed by questions highlighting specific aspects of the poem or its subject, and by a creative activity such as drawing.

I was particularly impressed by the photographs. The creatures--jellyfish, sand dollars, mussels--are presented almost exactly as a child would encounter them: in the hand, or discovered in the cleft of a sandstone boulder, or just beneath the surface in a tide pool. Both impressionistic and accurate, these lovely images illuminate the accompanying poems; and they set this book apart from books that aim only to educate.

The questions and activities, on the other hand, may strike adults as too simple, as many of them seem simply to ask the reader to turn back to confirm a specific word or description. This is not the case. The emphasis on vocabulary quickly widens out to questions of a broader nature about the habits or habitat of the animals and fish. At some points, Hotchkis suggests that the child might turn to other sources to discover answers to more complex issues, such as the growth cycle of barnacles or uses for seaweed. Though she does not say so, such research should of course be carried out with the supervision of the child's caretaker, particularly if he or she is using internet sources.

The poems blend art and science; most are generally accessible for a well-read-child of nine or ten, but there are some words(""mutilated"", ""ve

Anne Furlong
" Anne, your Beach Mysteries book is unique, fresh and delightful. Your writing engages the reader's surprise and interest in and caring for the inhabitants of the Northumberland Strait. My granddaughter loved it and liked the idea that she was just the right age for it, being 9 of last October. She loves poetry, has a journal of her own writings and computer print outs of poets and poems that she loves. I must tell you that Mei loves the grizzly and gruesome and the unusual so reacted quite enthusiastically with shivers to the dicing and slicing of the jellyfish. "

Katy Mann
"It is a given that the ocean has always had a mesmerizing effect on the creative soul. It is not surprising then, that poet Anne Hotchkis should express her love for the shores of the Northumberland Strait by writing a collection of poetry. But Beach Mysteries is more than just poetry. Hotchkis also has a background in Marine Biology and taught elementary school for years so the book is also a textbook albeit a textbook for the soul. Each poem describes an element from the ocean shore, from starfish to the undersea world of seaweed floating with ""the sparkle of sunshine."" Each of the thirteen poems is accompanied by a photograph and a short quiz to help younger readers take to memory what they have experienced.

Some of the poems like ""Purple Jello/Red Shoestring Licorice"" about jellyfish, are tactile, fun- ""wobblier wobbly woo"" and will appeal to children. Others, such as ""Imprisonment to Freedom"", about the hermit crab, are mature, more philosophical and geared to adults. The mixture invites the young and the old to experience this book together, preferably on the beach on a summer's day. Can't think of a better way to enjoy what Beach Mysteries has to offer. "

Diane Wallace
"The attractions of beaches have always been rather a mystery to me, coming as I do from a part of the world where sandy shores are in short supply. Anne Hotchkis understands that even youngsters who grow up with beaches in their backyards may need some guidance if they are to appreciate the wonders to be found there. Beach Mysteries encourages the young reader to linger, look, and learn about the riches of the Island coastline. To that end, each of the brief poems is prefaced by a beautifully rendered photograph; and each is followed by questions highlighting specific aspects of the poem or its subject, and by a creative activity such as drawing.

I was particularly impressed by the photographs. The creatures--jellyfish, sand dollars, mussels--are presented almost exactly as a child would encounter them: in the hand, or discovered in the cleft of a sandstone boulder, or just beneath the surface in a tide pool. Both impressionistic and accurate, these lovely images illuminate the accompanying poems; and they set this book apart from books that aim only to educate.

The questions and activities, on the other hand, may strike adults as too simple, as many of them seem simply to ask the reader to turn back to confirm a specific word or description. This is not the case. The emphasis on vocabulary quickly widens out to questions of a broader nature about the habits or habitat of the animals and fish. At some points, Hotchkis suggests that the child might turn to other sources to discover answers to more complex issues, such as the growth cycle of barnacles or uses for seaweed. Though she does not say so, such research should of course be carried out with the supervision of the child's caretaker, particularly if he or she is using internet sources.

The poems blend art and science; most are generally accessible for a well-read-child of nine or ten, but there are some words(""mutilated"", ""ve

Anne Furlong

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