How the Sea Came to Be
Jennifer Berne and Amanda Hall
Eerdmans Books for Young Readers

Jennifer Berne divides her rich poetic account into three parts: The Birth of the Sea, The Birth of Life and All That the Sea Came To Be, covering geology, oceanography, biology and evolution over 4.5 billion years – an enthralling journey indeed, especially when set alongside Amanda Hall’s show-stopping mixed media illustrations. The layout of every spread is a joy to explore.

The verbal imagery grips from the outset: ‘Volcanoes exploded from inside the Earth. / They blazed and they blasted and boomed. / And comets and asteroids crashed out of the sky, icy and rocky they zoomed.’

Having presented nature’s violence in storms and volcanic eruptions, the author and artist present the emergence of microscopic life forms – ‘smaller than small, and adrift in the seas,’ that gradually combined and changed into new 

and larger forms: ‘frilled creatures that wiggled and crawled’ as well as drifting, squishing jellyfish with their thread-like tentacles and then came the worm – a creature that ‘points as it squirms’.

Eventually we reach the multi-layered aquatic zones of the present time 

and then slowly return to the surface encountering a wealth of amazing marine flora and fauna to land at last on the shores of now, where people are exploring the rock pools.

Scientifically accurate throughout and written in almost faultless rhyme, there are no labels but it’s not difficult to locate the creatures named if you look carefully. Moreover, those who want to dive deeper can use the additional resources at the end of the book.

Totally immersive and with a wide appeal, this is a book for any collection.