They Swim the Seas : The Mystery of Animal Migration by Seymour Simon

A fascinating glimpse into the mysterious migration of sea creatures ranges from plants and animals so tiny they cannot be seen without a microscope, to eight-hundred pound turtles that travel a thousand miles just to lay their eggs. In spare, elegant language, Simon describes the migrations of marine plants and animals from the elevatorlike movements of microscopic plankton to the 4,000-mile journeys of gray whales. He has selected particularly intriguing creatures whose mysterious habits are certain to fascinate readers: eels who leave their freshwater homes in Europe and the U.S. and disappear in the Sargasso Sea to spawn, spiny lobsters who march single file from Bimini to deeper Gulf Stream waters, and tuna and salmon who return to the same spawning grounds where they were born after roaming thousands of miles around the oceans. In a concluding section, Simon provides additional information about the habits and physical characteristics of these animals. Warnick's fine watercolor illustrations are a perfect complement to Simon's fluid writing. She has captured the purposeful movement described in the text and rendered it in lively paintings that flow across the pages.