The Ocean at Night

Starting at sunset, this luminous book explores life in the ocean during the night and through to sunrise the next day. The reader is led by a succession of eye-catching images stretching across each double-page spread, introducing a different wonder of the natural world at night, from the migration of microscopic plankton to flying fish leaping over the waves. We see turtles coming up the beach to lay their eggs, dolphins hunting through the water and a glorious full moon over the waves. I was particularly charmed by the mucus bubbles – a kind of transparent sleeping bag – created by parrotfish to protect themselves at night.

Writer and illustrator Isabelle Simler uses a very effective art technique to create her images where bright, colourful lines appear to be reversed out of the ocean darkness, giving a truly glowing effect. A cut-out element on the front cover uses this brilliance to lead the reader into the book. Just looking at these pictures is a pleasure in itself, without reading a word. The text has two levels – at the top of the page, a simple one liner that early readers can access and, across the bottom, a lot more factual information about what we are looking at, aimed at older children. Michele Hutchinson’s translation from the original French reads well and has managed to condense a lot of ideas into a small space. To do so, she often uses very sophisticated language and mentions biological concepts that cannot be fully explained in the space available. As a consequence, even more able child readers will sometimes need some guidance and support in understanding them.

This is a beautiful book and a wonderful celebration of the natural world, even if it does not always explain what we are looking at in as much detail as some readers might want or need. Enticed by the artwork and fascinated by some of the extraordinary examples of ocean nightlife, I am sure many readers will be inspired to discover more for themselves after reading this book.