Salmon Stream (Sharing Nature With Children Book) [Paperback]

Carol Reed-Jones (Author), Michael S. Maydak (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 6 and up | Grade Level: 1 and up | Series: Sharing Nature With Children Book

Named a prestigious CBC/NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book, this is a poetic yet accurate description of the life cycle of salmon. For kids, it is fun and eye-opening. For teachers, it is a valuable supplement to a unit on water, fish and ocean animals, and the life cycle. Fast-paced prose and brilliant illustrations follow the salmon from their form as eggs in a stream to the wide ocean, eventually making a hazardous journey home to their stream of origin. As in her earlier best-selling book, The Tree in the Ancient Forest, author Carol Reed-Jones uses cumulative verse--a literary technique that is not only enjoyable but suggests how interconnected salmon are with their habitat. At the back is a section on salmon facts and what makes a good habitat for them, teaching the basics of ecology and why clean streams and waters are so important.

Editorial Reviews

Review

". . . captures the magnificence of the Pacific Salmon's life history. It should inspire the child in all of us. -- Dr. David Suzuki, of The David Suzuki Foundation, a Canadian science-based environmental organization

"Salmon Stream is truly a pleasure to read . . . rich in imagery, yet well founded in the scientific cycle of salmon. . ." -- Michael Frome, Ph.D. - educator, author and environmental advocate

"Through amazing, full-color illustrations and clever prose, Salmon Stream teaches young and old about ... salmon and their life cycle." -- Northwest Family Magazine, November 2001

Winner of the 2002 Learning Magazine Teacher's Choice Award --

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 6 and up
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Dawn Pubns; illustrated edition edition (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584690135
• ISBN-13: 978-1584690139
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 10.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #480,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #28 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > Animals > Fish > Nonfiction

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scientific Poetry / Poetic Science, March 27, 2001

By 

Jenny Sayward - See all my reviews

This review is from: Salmon Stream (Sharing Nature With Children Book) (Hardcover)

This story of the salmon life cycle is written in cumulative verse, like "The House That Jack Built." Starting from "This is the stream in the forest," the verses accumulate information as the eggs hatch into alevin and fry, while maintaining the lyrical flow of that stream. Then the smolt travel downstream to "an estuary wide" and the turbulent ocean. When the salmon receive the instinctual message to return home to spawn, the poetry of their journey is reversed: "... up the river with the tide, past the estuary wide ... obeying the voice of instinct's call, they leap a ten foot waterfall, to reach the place where they were born, bruised from the journey, weary and worn."

Again they arrive in the peaceful shady pool "filled with water, clear and cool, that flows in the stream in the forest." What a perfect way to demonstrate this cycle of life!

Illustrations saturate the pages with color. You'll feel wet from the flow of the cool stream, the splash of the waterfalls! Endpapers and an appendix add even more scientific information, as well as contacts and ideas for citizen conservation efforts.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Leaping and circling, November 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Salmon Stream (Sharing Nature With Children Book) (Hardcover)

Once again the circle of life is completed by the salmon of the pacific northwest. This is a cumulative story about the journey of the salmon from natal stream to ocean and back again. Parents nourish children who leave home to return to nourish their children.

Pictures a deeply colored and beautifully detailed. Would probably work best with slightly older children rather than younger. Would make an excellent classroom discussion book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous illustrations, engaging poem, and further info at the end, October 2, 2009

By 

HeatherHH - See all my reviews

This review is from: Salmon Stream (Sharing Nature With Children Book) (Hardcover)

This book was given to my children by their grandparents, and we think it's wonderful! My 8-year-old rates it 4 1/2 stars. He especially likes the 3 pages of information at the back written in adult-sized text, talking about the salmon's life-cycle, the environment they live in, etc. My 6-year-old loved the gorgeous pictures in the poem part of the book.

The poem is cumulative verse, adding more and more onto it, while repeating the parts that came before. Though after a while, when the salmon travel it has completely new text, before again repeating some of the old when the salmon come back to spawn, thus emphasizing the circular nature of their life cycle. Here's a sample:

This is the tiny fish that hatched
(and has its dinner still attached),
from the egg of a salmon, born to travel,
that hides in the nest of rocky gravel
far beyond the shady pool,
filled with water, clear and cool,
that flows in the stream in the forest.

It has a wonderful rhythm when read aloud. To get full appreciation of everything, you obviously need a child in the recommended age range of 9-12 (or advanced 7-8 year olds), because of some of the vocabulary, even in the poem (e.g. hovering, instinctively, obstacles, current's, devised, homing urge, etc). But, children in the 5-8 year-old range can get much of the sense of it and can appreciate the rhythm and gorgeous illustrations. The illustrations, though done by a different illustrator, have the feel of those typically done by Jim Arnosky.

With the 3 pages of further information at the back, there is plenty for older elementary-aged children to learn as well. I'd recommend this books to read aloud to children in the 6- to 12-year-old range and for solo reading by children reading on a 5th grade level or above. This is an outstanding book, and I will check out the author's other book The Tree in the Ancient Forest.