Based on the idea that knowledge is enabling, 'The Big Green Book of the Big Blue Sea' shows how the ocean works and why this immense ecosystem needs our protection. Experiments using everyday materials help explain scientific concepts, such as why the ocean is salty, how temperature affects water density and why fish don't get waterlogged. A focus on pollution and other ecological hazards raises awareness. Young scientists will gain a hands-on understanding of how "booms" clean oil spills and how a garbage patch roughly twice the size of Texas came to exist in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Newsy sidebars bring readers up to date on efforts to combat environmental hazards -- such as the use of oysters to help squelch pollution in urban waterways. An ideal tool for classroom use or the perfect way to spend a rainy day, 'The Big Green Book of the Big Blue Sea' is an essential part of any science library. AUTHOR: Helaine Becker is the bestselling writer of children's fiction, nonfiction and verse. Her Scholastic chapter book series, The Looney Bay All-Stars, has sold over 175 000 copies to date; A Porcupine in a Pine Tree was a national bestseller in 2010 and received the Libris Picture Book of the Year Award from the C.B.A. She is also a three-time winner of the Silver Birch Award: for Boredom Blasters in 2006, and for Secret Agent Y.O.U. in 2008; What's the Big Idea? received the Silver Birch Honour Award in 2011. The Insecto-Files was awarded the first ever Lane Anderson Award for Science Writing for Children. Willow Dawson, originally from Vancouver, Brisitsh Columbia, is an illustrator and writer working out of Toronto, Canada. Her stand-alone illustrations are rendered in ink and acrylic on cardboard. She also works sequentially in ink as a comics artist. Some of Dawson's clients include Kids Can Press, Owl Magazine, Shameless Magazine, Feathertale Review, Filmblanc, Sumach Press, Kiss Machine, Locust Mount Records, Tightrope Books and Omni TV.