Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

An informational picture book that solves a whodunit of the sea in lilting, rhyming text.

Petrie (The Bumpy, Lumpy Horseshoe Crab, 2011) wrote and illustrated this picture book about the feeding habits of sea creatures. A young girl clad in a wet suit, flippers, and a scuba mask finds an intact clamshell, missing its clam, with an unexplained hole drilled in it. She asks a nearby adult what might have created the hole, and when he panics, convinced it must be the work of a dangerous creature (“A shark, it’s a shark, / whose tooth bit right through it. / I knew when I saw it, / a shark’s tooth could do it!”), all of the children are ordered out of the ocean. It’s up to the youthful zoological detective to discover the perpetrator so that the revelers can return to the water. Based on her own knowledge of sharks, the girl rejects the adult’s hypothesis, and she questions a sea star, a sea gull, a lobster, and a moon snail. She is accompanied in her inquiries by three comic fish that make elaborative asides. The interrogated animals are clam predators, but they declare their innocence: “Not me, not me, / I guarantee. / I love to eat clams, / but it wasn’t me!” Each explains his or her modus operandi, which doesn’t match the evidence; the sea gull, for example, says, “I drop the clam hard / to shatter its shell. / Then I swoop down to eat / from the rock where it fell.” Cartoonish illustrations fit the whimsical tone and mood, and bright colors help solidify the seaside setting. Shifts in perspective demonstrate the scale of the animals in relation to each other and the girl and remain mostly consistent. An afterword includes additional information about each of the ocean animals featured.

An entertaining examination of oceanographic food webs, good for both everyday read-alouds and classroom instructional use.

 

Tri-Town Transcript

Author Pens Second Children’s Book

There’s a mystery at the beach. People can easily find clamshells with a hole drilled through them, yet very few know how the hole gets there. Topsfield resident Janice S. C. Petrie’s new, illustrated children’s book, “Did You Make the Hole in the Shell in the Sea?” solves this mystery. Petrie has been performing sea animal programs in elementary and preschools for years, and teachers and students are always surprised to learn which sea animal drills the hole.

Petrie’s vividly, colorful illustrations and expressive characters help to solve the mystery of whether a shark made the hole in the clamshell, or if some other sea animal was responsible. As Petrie takes us on this quest, we learn the unique ways that lobsters, sea stars, seagulls, and moon snails eat.

Petrie first learned about marine coastal invertebrates while working as an educational outreach specialist for the New England Aquarium. Since then, she has spent years collecting and caring for sea animals commonly found in tidepool and tidal flat habitats. Through her Seatales program, Petrie teaches about these animals, providing a hands-on learning experience for students.

“There’s so much more to these sea animals than people realize, even if they go to the beach on a regular basis.” Petrie remarked. “My goal is to teach children and adults, through my programs and books, about these incredible sea animals we all commonly find at the beach.”

“Did You Make the Hole in the Shell in the Sea?” is Petrie’s second illustrated children’s book. Her first book, “The Bumpy, Lumpy Horseshoe Crab,” tells the tale of a horseshoe crab adventure, while depicting many behaviors that horseshoe crabs exhibit in real life.

Petrie is a Massachusetts state certified teacher, and has earned a bachelor of science degree in elementary education, a master of education degree in reading education, and a bachelor of arts degree in art, with a graphic design concentration. For more information about Janice’s books and many of her sea animals, please visit her website at www.janicepetrie.com.

Petrie will be appearing at The Gift Horse at 20 Main Street in Topsfield, with a live sea animal display during the Holiday Stroll on December 7^th, from 4-7PM. She’ll be available to answer questions about her sea animals, as well as to sign both of her children’s books at that time. Petrie’s books are also available through Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble Books.

-Kathryn O’Brien, Reporter – Tri-Town Transcript, Boxford MA, November 29, 2013

 

The Wakefield Daily Item

Wakefield native writes, illustrates children’s book on sea life

Have you ever found a shell at the beach with a perfectly drilled hole through it and wondered how the hole got there? Almost everybody growing up on the New England coast has memories of finding a shell at the beach with a perfect hole to lace a string through and make a necklace. But what made the hole in the shell? Not many people seem to know. The mystery is solved in former Wakefield resident Janice Petrie’s new children’s book entitled, “Did You Make the Hole in the Shell in the Sea?” This illustrated, children’s book not only reveals whether a shark made the hole or not, but it also explains the unique ways that a sea star, a moon snail, a seagull, and a lobster eat.

Petrie has spent much of her career developing her company, Seatales, which presents hands-on sea animal programs for preschools and elementary schools in the area. Many times, during programs, when Petrie began telling students what sea creature made the hole in a clamshell, she would hear a collective, “Ohhh,” from the teachers present. “Is that how the hole gets there?”

“Did You Make the Hole in the Shell in the Sea?” has rhythmic and rhyming text, and brilliantly colorful illustrations that would appeal to any 3-10 year old. But even adults will enjoy learning about many of the sea animals they find at the beach each day in the summer.

“Did You Make the Hole in the Shell in the Sea?” is Petrie’s second illustrated children’s book. Her first book, “The Bumpy, Lumpy Horseshoe Crab,” tells the tale of a horseshoe crab adventure, while depicting many behaviors that horseshoe crabs exhibit in real life.

One of Petrie’s goals is to create a series of illustrated children’s books that tell about the sea animals she’s collected, cared for, and presented to students for years.

“There’s so much more to these sea animals than people realize, even if they go to the beach on a regular basis.” Petrie remarked. “My goal is to teach children and adults, through my programs and books, about these incredible sea animals we all commonly find at the beach.”

Petrie is a Massachusetts state certified teacher, and has earned a bachelor of science degree in elementary education, a master of education degree in reading education, and a bachelor of arts degree in art, with a graphic design concentration. For more information about Janice’s books and many of her sea animals, please visit her website at janicepetrie.com.

–Gail Lowe, Reporter – Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, November 20, 2013.