World Without Fish

March 21, 2011
Kurlansky (The Cod's Tale) offers an urgent account of the problems that threaten the world's oceans and could result in the commercial extinction of key species of fish in the next 50 years. It's an alarming statement, underscored by the book's design: on most pages, key sentences (and sometimes not-so-key ones) appear in an enormous, all-caps font, the typographical equivalent of a fire alarm ("THIS IS CALLED A SUSTAINABLE FISHERY. THIS IS THE REAL ANSWER TO OVERFISHING"). Kurlansky opens by outlining the problemâoverfishing is resulting in "a massive shifting in the natural order of the planet"âbefore discussing the cultural, political, and industrial factors that have led to current conditions. Sidebars profile various fish as well as key historical moments, and the narrative is further broken up by comic book panels that tell the earnest story of Kram, a fictional scientist, and his daughter, Ailat, who witness the very destruction Kurlansky describes, as species vanish and the oceans turn slimy and orange with the resurgence of algae and krill. It's a dire
vision, and Kurlansky's few suggestions (support sustainable fishing, become an activist) may not be much comfort. Ages 10âup.

March 15, 2011

The author of Cod (1997) successfully provides readers with a frightening look at the looming destruction of the oceans. Brief sections in graphic-novel format follow a young girl, Ailat, and her father over a couple of decades as the condition of the ocean grows increasingly dire, eventually an orange, slimy mess mostly occupied by jellyfish and leatherback turtles. At the end, Ailat's young daughter doesn't even know what the word fish means. This is juxtaposed against nonfiction chapters with topics including types of fishing equipment and the damage each causes, a history of the destruction of the cod and its consequences, the international politics of the fishing industry and the effects of pollution and global warming. The final chapter lists of some actions readers could take to attempt to reverse the damage: not eating certain types of fish, joining environmental groups, writing to government officials, picketing seafood stores that sell endangered fish, etc. Whenever an important point is to be made, font size increases dramatically, sometimes so that a single sentence fills a page--attention-getting but distractingly so. While it abounds with information, sadly, no sources are cited, undermining reliability. Additionally, there are no index and no recommended bibliography for further research, diminishing this effort's value as a resource. Depressing and scary yet grimly entertaining. (Nonfiction/graphic-novel hybrid. 10 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 1, 2011
Grades 6-9 Kurlansky, whose children's books include The Cod's Tale (2001) and The Story of Salt (2006), sounds the alarm for the health of the fish, oceans, and, by extension, life on earth. A former commercial fisherman, he brings together a great deal of information and makes a persuasive case for how and why ocean life should be protected. With varied typography, some white-and-red lettering on black pages, and striking full-page illustrations as well as many smaller ones, the book's design is dynamic, though sometimes distracting. Readers who mistake the occasional colorful, huge-print sentences for pull quotes and skip them will miss important points in the text, at least until they figure out that these sentences are not repeated. Back matter includes advice for young activists and an annotated list of environmental groups concerned with marine issues, but the lack of a bibliography or source notes for quotes is disappointing. Still, this eye-catching, clearly written book presents a topic that is not well represented in books for young people.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2011
The decline of fish populations, due to overfishing, pollution, and global warming, is a major environmental concern. Kurlansky digs deeply and engagingly into the history and science of the issue and provides important recommendations for sustainable fishing (the scientific terminology is very occasionally imprecise). Each chapter ends with a comic that imagines the impact of fish extinctions over a human's lifetime. Websites. Ind.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)