From the front cover to the last, this embossed, hard-back picture book is Stunning!
Readers will find themselves out in the ocean, far from any sign of land.
They are now in the realm of sea creatures that live, roam and die Through the Darkening Sea.
“A whale falls…”  beneath the waves and below the diving seagulls and dolphins that frolic above.
It falls past where the seals play, deeper and deeper past migrating krill and down into the depths of no light or colour at all. Only anglerfish, jellyfish and squid see it sink further until it reaches its resting place – the sea bottom.
The whale’s body then becomes another part of the life cycle of the sea. Fish feed. Crabs crawl. Worms wiggle.
These too become food for other creatures, which reaches up towards the light and another whale about to give birth to a calf.
Peter Cheong’s art takes readers down into the deep blue and then dark of the ocean floor. Readers then rise back up again through the water to new life.
Through the Darkening Sea is a picture book to savour, and a different way to experience the Circle of Life.
This would make an excellent starting point to Sea-Week studies in a classroom, encouraging students to learn about the many levels of the ocean and its inhabitants.
Author – Claire Saxby
Illustrator – Peter Cheong
Publisher – Harper Collins Australia
Picture Book
(2026, Harper Collins Australia, Whale, Death, Ocea, Sea, Circle of Life, New Life, Sealife, Fish, Animals, Science, Biology)