Monday 17 January 2011

Book Sharing Monday :: Here There Be Monsters: The Legendary Kraken and the Giant Skid


What a fascinating book! I found it at our library and thought that it might interest Adrienne for her project about pirates. The legendary kraken and pirates go together, no?! We are not finished with this book yet, but I wanted to share it anyway. 

"Here There Be Monsters: The Legendary Kraken and the Giant Squid" is written by HP Newquist.




The book is divided into four parts. The first one explains some of the Tales of the sea serpent throughout history. There are beautiful illustrations throughout the entire book, ancient maps, photos of ancient pottery, photographs, and old drawings.



The second part's title is What was imagined might be real, this section explains more about history and how towards 1870 more of the beasts were found dead on beaches around the world and the effect on science and people.
The third part is A real-life monster, scientists discover more about these creatures and this chapter explains more about the giant squids, describing every part. The parrot-like beak on the giant squid might be weird, we learned, but the inside of its mouth is "like something from a horror movie. Architeuthis has a tongue-like muscle covered with rows of tiny, sharp blades, also made of chitin (chitin is hard bony substance)." There's many more interesting facts about the giant squid in this part!



Finally, the last part is called The monster rises  and here is the subtitle which says it all "the myth of the kraken and the portrayal of the giant squid as a huge predator have been kept alive in front of movie cameras-and in the pages of books-for a long time." This part talks about movies and books, but also about the expeditions and their results.
Here is a great site to see photos from a dissection done by New Zealand scientists of a colossal squid (which is different than the giant squid), and a giant squid: A Close Look at the Colossal Squid. Check out the photo of the colossal squid's tentacles with the hooks (it's the 5th picture), the beak is next!  
The short video below is footage from a colossal squid captured in 2007. In the video, they explained that the squid wouldn't have survived if they let it go, so they brought in on board.

If you would like to participate in Book Sharing Monday, please leave a link to your post in the mr. linky below. Happy Reading!







2 comments:

  1. Wow, that book looks insanely interesting. How funny that both our books (although our is a board book) have to do with giant squid!

    ReplyDelete
  2. A good informative post that you have shared and thankful your work for sharing the information. Got some appealing information and would like to give it a try. Applaud your work and keep sharing your information.

    Friv
    kogama

    ReplyDelete

I ♥ comments! Thank you for stopping by.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Labels

Fun home learning book sharing monday family books wordless wednesday nature journey north art wrap-up weekly report Reading nature study holidays photography science geography sketch tuesday canada homeschool report Me pets quilting cooking for our earth DPP Movies outdoor challenge sewing exploring get outdoors Fairy outdoor hour Iditarod birthday challenge math summer celeste journey north 2009 100books Dragon Lego music Princess animals halloween home journey north 2010 lapbook NaNoWriMo author fiesta field trip public school wreck this journal poetry 12 secrets baking birds blogs journey north 2011 spring city curriculum fitness gardening moving black history month bugs earth hour journey north 2012 planning reading my library shutter sisters sled dogs this moment travel unschooling December board games calendar quilt lego quest swap air cadets feeding my family food revolution hockey library recipes what works air show author study award backyard bird count camping dr seuss father's day pirates roald dahl space sports what my children are reading year 5 Ballet DQS6 St Patrick's Day TED talks arnosky basketball biographies eating clean for others geocaching happiness mail medical memory monday orion poems science rendezvous scree-free week 2011 skating spelling winter solstice winterfest youtube 2010 olympics Charlottetown PEI Patricia Polacco Rant appreciation book collecting good deeds helping others hooping hunger games jamie oliver maze nat orchestra peace quilt-along screen-free week snail stamps the next chapter book club video games wilderness wednesday wish wednesday world news writing