CORAL REEFS

The author of well over a hundred information books for children turns her attention to coral reefs in this introduction to that beautiful underwater world. Organized topically, the information is presented in short paragraphs superimposed on busy watercolor-and-ink illustrations with helpful labels spread across double pages. Beginning with a world map showing locations, Gibbons goes on to cover how reefs form and grow, describe different kinds and show species characteristic of different zones. She differentiates between hard and soft coral and describes some of the other inhabitants of the reef by day and by night. The illustration of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef shows appropriate fish, coral, anemones and a crown-of-thorns starfish together. Curiously, she does not explain the significance of the starfish or describe other current threats except to mention, in a picture, that warmer seawater temperatures cause corals to die. Most useful as an additional purchase where her other books have been popular or as a companion to one of the many titles about reefs illustrated with color photographs. (Nonfiction. 4-8)