At the surface of the water, sunlight is absorbed by microscopic phytoplankton and eventually transferred to ocean animals through consumption of plankton by those in the shallower layers for those where light cannot reach, energy is transferred through consumption of the animal and plant remains that drift downward. After a brief overview of food chains and photosynthesis using a more-familiar land-based example, the narrative moves to the ocean. The authors bring a fresh perspective to the topic of food chains, focusing here on the critical and voluminous ocean-based plant life - plankton - and the transfer of energy and nutrients from the sun to these microscopic plants to ocean animals and back. 5/04) and Bang and Chisholm’s Living Sunlight (rev. by Molly BangĪlthough it stands alone well, this book is a companion to Bang’s My Light (rev. Preschool-Grade 3.By Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm illus. Four pages of appended notes not available. Visual themes such as waves of light, floating molecules, and the curving forms of trees, animals, and the earth itself recur on many pages, yet each double-page spread illustrates its lines of text with intelligence and originality. Alight with unusual intensity, the artwork fills the pages with vibrant images, whether showing a child on a swing surrounded by and infused with the sun’s energy or a rolling meadow teeming with diverse plants and animals. As in Bang’s picture book My Light (2004), the amiable, well-informed narrator is the sun.

The simple yet precise description of photosynthesis is admirable, but the broad explanation of its significance is exceptional. It also tells children why this process matters and leads them into a broad understanding of their personal connection with plant life and energy from the sun. Living Sunlight talks to young children about photosynthesis (a vital process that most adults would be hard put to explain) in a way that tells what is actually happening at the molecular level. *Starred Review* If a good picture book does what it sets out to do, a great one sets out to do something huge and succeeds.

Living sunlight by molly bang