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DIVE IN:
Swim with Sea Creatures at Their Actual Size published by Holiday House April 7, 2020 |
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Here's a fun interview on KidLit TV's Storymakers with Rocco Staino about DIVE IN - cool facts about fish, and how Roxie draws them. And Rocco gives it a try! Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSgU-Xw9IeY&w=420&h=237 |
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Short snappy video 1.5-minute trailer for
DIVE IN. Swim with exotic Caribbean coral reef fish - sounds, music, and beautiful creatures. Click here (or image on left): https://youtu.be/tLCRj7ShWWA |
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A 3.5-minute video introduction to DIVE IN from Roxie's studio.
Click here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDzKhWOpVFU&feature=youtu.be |
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If you want to know how my new book, DIVE IN: Swim with Sea Creatures at Their Actual Size (published by Holiday House), was made, click here for a lively art-filled video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQm57R4QFhk
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Scroll down for 4-page lesson Plan and six FREE coloring sheets to
download and color in!
And a beautiful postcard to print out and send to friends.
download and color in!
And a beautiful postcard to print out and send to friends.
"Replete with information and vibrant images,
Munro’s newest nonfiction picture book is beautiful."
-- School Library Journal
Munro’s newest nonfiction picture book is beautiful."
-- School Library Journal
"Interesting facts about eating habits, unique features, and survival tactics used by each creature are presented on double-page spreads. There is even a double-gatefolded spread in the middle that reveals a reef shark! The sea creatures are illustrated at actual size, painted with India ink and vibrant acrylics. The media chosen are especially fitting since coral reefs are known for their bright colors." --Booklist
"Because multiple animals appear on every spread, readers must examine each description and then match it with one of the creatures in the illustrations. Thus youngsters become inquisitive partners, rather than passive observers, in the aquatic experience. That Munro depicts the animals at their actual size, and with colorful inks that mirror the habitat,
adds to the realism."—The Horn Book
"Because multiple animals appear on every spread, readers must examine each description and then match it with one of the creatures in the illustrations. Thus youngsters become inquisitive partners, rather than passive observers, in the aquatic experience. That Munro depicts the animals at their actual size, and with colorful inks that mirror the habitat,
adds to the realism."—The Horn Book
A life-sized exploration of an underwater world...
"A fine way for budding marine biologists to get their feet wet"
--Kirkus Reviews
"A fine way for budding marine biologists to get their feet wet"
--Kirkus Reviews
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Download a free 4-page Lesson Plan from Holiday House (Guided Reading; NGSS/Next Generation Science Standards).
Click here: HH Dive In Lesson Plan |
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What happened to pandemic books. DIVE IN came out on April 7, 2020, the day that the whole USA (and NYC) had the most deaths... Publishers had shut down and no one knew what was going on. See this short Publishers Weekly piece which discusses DIVE IN .
Click here (scroll down to third book): https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/87061-pandemic-missed-connections-august-5-2021.html
Get a giant walk-in CORAL REEF for your classroom, painted by Roxie (with a Research Ship on the other side) published by KIWi Storybooks (Kids Interactive Walk-in Storybooks). Includes an app with cool information and games, a play, curriculum, and lots more. Go to https://www.kiwistorybooks.com/ or on this website: KIWiStorybooks
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For the KIWi Storybook short trailer featuring "Coral Reef" with the "Research Ship" on the other side, and more giant walk-in books!
Click : https://www.kiwistorybooks.com/ecosystems-walk-in-storybook.htm |
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For the 30-second trailer showing how the Kiwi Storybooks iPad app for a coral reef works, Click: vimeo.com/135232333 |
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Check out these art images from the book!
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Download and print out FREE coloring pages...
Click on "Download File."
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DIVE IN postcard... print on card stock and send to friends who love the ocean! Click on pdf to download and print:
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DIVE IN is a 2020 KidLit TV Summer Reading List Pick!
Click here for complete list: https://kidlit.tv/2020/06/2020-summer-reading-list/ |
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Holiday House has created a free lively fun-filled Activity Kit for 5 of my books!
Click to download: https://holidayhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Roxie-Munro-activity-kit-des3.pdf |
DIVE IN is on the BANK STREET COLLEGE BEST CHILDREN'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2021 List!!
...Lavish color drawings portray the creatures that dwell in the world’s oceans and reefs.
Back matter, glossary, map. (8-10)
Click here: https://www.bankstreet.edu/library/center-for-childrens-literature/childrens-book-committee/best-childrens-books-of-the-year/2021-edition/
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Here's a YouTube video done live on Instagram for Holiday House for their Star Storytime feature of me reading Dive In, and showing some art from my upcoming 2021 book! Click here: https://youtu.be/TbtNP4mFmdQ |
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Fun!
Creative New Jersey Elementary School librarian Valerie Munro (no relation!) did a cool display with "Dive In." |
Excerpts from reviews:
School Library Journal:
Gr 2-5–Replete with information and vibrant images, Munro’s newest nonfiction picture book is beautiful. Sharing the diversity of life found in coral reefs, the book showcases everything from trumpetfish to sea stars to eels, all drawn at the creatures’ actual sizes. This thoughtfully crafted book will be an excellent resource for an ocean or coral reef unit. The references and additional information found in the glossary offer readers and teachers multiple ways to continue the learning that this book will spark. With a diagram to orient readers to the creatures illustrated and a map of coral reefs around the world, the reading experience feels like a trip to an aquarium (or, better yet, to a reef). VERDICT A useful addition to classroom and library collections on ocean life and conservation. Purchase where rich informational picture books are in demand.–Jen McConnel, Queen’s University, Ont.
Booklist:
This picture book highlights over 25 species found in coral reefs around the world. Interesting facts about eating habits, unique features, and survival tactics used by each creature are presented on double-page spreads. There is even a double-gatefolded spread in the middle that reveals a reef shark! The sea creatures are illustrated at actual size, painted with India ink and vibrant acrylics. The media chosen are especially fitting since coral reefs are known for their bright colors. This book includes a list of resources for further reading, an index, and a glossary (terms are italicized rather than boldfaced in the main text). The back endpapers show a map of coral reefs around the world. The publisher thanks a scientist from an oceanographic institute for vetting the information, which lends credibility. This attractive book would work nicely for a preschool or early elementary storytime...."
The Horn Book:
"Because multiple animals appear on every spread, readers must examine each description and then match it with one of the creatures in the illustrations. Thus youngsters become inquisitive partners, rather than passive observers, in the aquatic experience. That Munro depicts the animals at their actual size, and with colorful inks that mirror the habitat, adds to the realism."
EDLEWEISS :
"An accounting of who’s who in and around a coral reef, presented clearly and beautifully as only Roxie Munro can. I was amused by how she included humans at the end, noting that humans are “not indigenous to the ocean.” Back matter includes a labeled diagram of a reef with the animals featured in the book, an author’s note about protecting coral reefs, a reference list, and a map showing coral reefs of the world. This book answers the questions, What’s going on around a coral reef? Which animals life there? What do they look like? How do they behave? Curious readers will want to know."
Myra Zarnowski
Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Queens College
"An accounting of who’s who in and around a coral reef, presented clearly and beautifully as only Roxie Munro can. I was amused by how she included humans at the end, noting that humans are “not indigenous to the ocean.” Back matter includes a labeled diagram of a reef with the animals featured in the book, an author’s note about protecting coral reefs, a reference list, and a map showing coral reefs of the world. This book answers the questions, What’s going on around a coral reef? Which animals life there? What do they look like? How do they behave? Curious readers will want to know."
Myra Zarnowski
Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Queens College
Vicki Cobb, Science Writer:
"Candidate for a Child's Home Library
In my last post, I quoted a literacy statistic for a children's home library, "Children growing up in homes with at least twenty books get three years more schooling than children from bookless homes, independent of their parents’ education, occupation, and class." A children's home library contains books that, by definition, will be read more than once. Roxie Munro's glorious adventure under water on a coral reef, Dive In: Swim with Sea Creatures at Their Actual Size, is a perfect candidate.
Dive In is enticing on so many levels. As someone who has had the memorable experience of snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef, once was not enough but once is all I got. Munro's book powerfully creates the experience. You are immersed and absorbed, never leaving the sea, viewing 29 of the gorgeous, quirky, fantastical inhabitants of coral reefs. It deserves to be revisited time and time again.
Did you ever hear of a spotted cleaner shrimp or a longsnout seahorse or the queen triggerfish, to name a few? And what's that gray thing that starts looming in the background on 15,16, 17, 18 and folds out into two double-spreads on pages 19-22 to reveal a reef shark that is 8 feet long? (Measuring that critter, alone, is worth owning the book.)
This is a book that commands study and involvement that goes way beyond the five-minute bedtime read. Munro includes a simple fact or two for each critter that are gems:
"The common octopus is a mollusk, as are snails, clams, and squids. Like a squid,
an octopus also changes colors and patterns to camouflage itself. An octopus has
excellent vision and a large brain, and is considered the most intelligent,
invertebrate. It even uses tools to build its den, which might feature a door that
opens and closes!"
My kid-like curious brain is teeming with questions to know more. If it's a mollusk, where's its shell? How many colors can it be? How do we know that? What does its eyes have to do with the size of its brain?
The back-matter reveals a key to the 29 different species as a "walk in the park" diagram including the relative sizes depicted as actual size in the book. Yep, there's the reef shark, taking up space in the middle. And the end papers feature coral reefs of the world, including the one I dove into.
Roxie Munro brings the skills of a fine artist and the discipline of a diligent nonfiction author to revealing a complex and glorious ecosystem currently under attack from global warming.
If Dive In is the first book on coral reefs in a child's library, it will not be the last."
Kid Lit Frenzy:
A scuba diver encounters exquisite coral reef creatures in this clever introduction, which includes a gatefold of a reef shark, to one of world's most alluring--and threatened--habitats.
Luminous spreads of true-to-size sea life, from a brilliantly colored rainbow parrotfish to a venomous southern stingray, and a surprise gatefold fit together into one scene in this meticulously illustrated nonfiction picture book.
Accompanying the vibrant artwork are descriptions of the 29 creatures that reveal their intriguing habits and more about the Caribbean coral reef they call home. A key included in the back matter shows how the pages smartly fit together. An index, a map, and a section on protecting coral reefs are also included. Budding conservationists will love learning about this vital ecosystem of coral reefs around the world.
A scuba diver encounters exquisite coral reef creatures in this clever introduction, which includes a gatefold of a reef shark, to one of world's most alluring--and threatened--habitats.
Luminous spreads of true-to-size sea life, from a brilliantly colored rainbow parrotfish to a venomous southern stingray, and a surprise gatefold fit together into one scene in this meticulously illustrated nonfiction picture book.
Accompanying the vibrant artwork are descriptions of the 29 creatures that reveal their intriguing habits and more about the Caribbean coral reef they call home. A key included in the back matter shows how the pages smartly fit together. An index, a map, and a section on protecting coral reefs are also included. Budding conservationists will love learning about this vital ecosystem of coral reefs around the world.