Sam Hume, An Anthology of Aquatic Life, Dorling Kindersley, September 2022, 224 pp., RRP $39.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780241546321
This is a beautiful book to look at. From its gilt-edged pages to the gold-enhanced covers, its 244 pages are attractively designed and sumptuously illustrated. Most double-page spreads feature a large photograph of a particular water lifeform, be it animal, plant, algae or other. These are organised into chapters according to their habitat, labelled Deep ocean, Shallow seas, Wetlands and Rivers, lakes and ponds.
Author Sam Hume displays a lifelong love of water worlds, and the illustrations are acknowledged from a variety of sources. There is an amazing array of different creatures to capture the interest of young and old readers. The accompanying text of only a few paragraphs on each page is well-written and conversational in tone. There are also introductory pages to each habitat and additional sketches.
The book concludes with a ‘Visual Guide’ showing a drawing of each featured creature in order of page number with its scientific name and classification, size, and geographic location. It is a shame that this information is not alongside each entry. There is also no alphabetical index, only a list of contents at the beginning, so finding an entry is not quite straightforward. Also, some of the categorization could be disputed. To call an Adelie penguin a deep ocean creature because it can dive to depths of 150m is questionable.
While this book is not a comprehensive encyclopaedia of marine and freshwater life, it is an attractive and useful introductory overview informative for readers of any age.
Reviewed by Lynne Babbage
