CORAL REEFS

A nuts-and-bolts introduction to an undersea habitat.

The latest book in this long-running series explores coral reefs, which make up less than 1% of the ocean floor but provide habitats for more than 25% of marine life. In unadorned prose, Cathryn Sill lays out the basics about coral reefs—how they grow and survive, the varieties of corals and types of reefs, the marine creatures that interact with them, and the threats they face. As with previous books in this series, simple sentences appear on each verso, along with a caption for the full-page watercolor illustration on the recto by John Sill, Cathryn’s husband. One of the more interesting spreads—“Corals also get food by hunting at night”—includes a lovely split screen–style illustration, depicting sun coral by day and then by night, its tentacles extended to capture zooplankton. Close-ups of corals and a diagram of the life cycle of Staghorn coral help round out the work. The book concludes with a rather quiet “Coral reefs are important places that need to be protected,” which misses the urgency found in the backmatter, where readers will need to go to find out why.

Reliable, plainspoken information on a crucial ecosystem.