The Hidden Forest

Ben tumbles out of his dinghy in an attempt to free his fish trap and finds himself in a fascinating but potentially dangerous underwater world where slimy kelp clings. Safely back in his dinghy he rows back to the shore to seek the help of his friend, Sophie, who is a strong diver and will be able to help him untangle the trap.

The book reveals the mysterious hidden environment of a layered kelp forest beneath the sea in Tasmania’s Tasman Peninsula, a forest that sways back and forth with the movement of the waves. The author appeals to our senses to communicate the kind of experience the young divers have: kelp ‘slides’ against them and feels like ‘swirling velvet’ while their eyes feast on the ‘dark gleaming shape of a whale’ and on the ‘shafts of sunlight shimmering in the kelp branches’.

Baker is well known for her distinctive artwork, based on models of carefully arranged natural materials. In the pictures in this book these include seaweeds, sponges and sands. Wonderful effects have been achieved by modelling the kelp with a translucent artist’s clay and realising the sea water with the use of resin. The powerful illustrations and simple but evocative text will help children of about age six to nine learn much of significance about both natural history and geography. But they will learn other things as well for, with the lightest of touches, the author helps us become aware of an attitude change: the boy who emptied out small fish from his trap ‘in disgust to let them die’ now feels that all sea creatures are ‘wonderful’ and deserve to be left in their underwater world.