Jellyfish: A Natural History

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She teaches her class about jellyfish lifecycles – – – "jelly start off on us as a plant, cleaning to the bottom of the sea, and how in that phase of life, they are a planula. But that when they are grown up, when they break away from the seafloor and are free to pulse through the ocean, they have taken the form of a medusa." She has so much more to say...( this is the first time she has spoken at all since before the beginning of the school year) ... She has a message she desperately wants to get across--- but her teacher stops her...they have run out of time... She lets her continue - a little-.but she still never finishes... This makes for a bit of a hybrid: this is both a coffee table book with great, clear illustrations & a fairly thorough introduction to jellyfish biology. I doubt experienced marine biologists with an interest in the subject will learn a lot of new things from Gershwin, but for the general public the book is detailed nonetheless. As a reading experience, the format gets a bit monotonous towards the end – especially as the end chapter is the least interesting of all, with the least depth. Still, let me be clear: this is – by far – the best book on jellyfish available. If you want more, you’ll need to dive in the world of scientific journals. Jellyfish, with their undulating umbrella-shaped bells and sprawling tentacles, are as fascinating and beautiful as they are frightening and dangerous. They are found in every ocean at every depth, and they are the oldest multi-organed life form on the planet, having inhabited the ocean for more than five hundred million years. In many places they are also vastly increasing in number, and these population blooms may be an ominous indicator of the rising temperatures and toxicity of the world’s oceans. Suzy Swanson is an oddball; she likes science and statistics, she spouts animal facts about bodily fluids like nobody's business and, more often than not, misses social cues. The story is told through her POV and her voice is authentic and heartbreaking. Being most comfortable with science for explanations, Suzy attempts to bring structure to her grief by focusing her energy on jellyfish facts and statistics, and on planning to get her theory about the real cause of Franny's death validated by a jellyfish expert.

Jellyfish outwits predatory Swordfish by luring him into the darkest depths of the ocean. But when Swordfish encounters a predator of his own, Jellyfish comes to his aid and teaches him a lesson in the process. No wonder I Am Jellyfish won Best Picture Book at this year’s New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Sterling rhyming, immersive illustrations, action, compassion, and a glow-in-the-dark cover to encourage littlies to turn off the light at bedtime. Mary de Ruyter, North and South I’ve always been fascinated by jellyfish. One of my earliest memories is the discovery of a huge washed up jellyfish in Wales, sprawled out on the sand like a strange alien creature. T. dohrnii may bend the rules to rejuvenate itself, but it can't always cheat death. For example, jellyfish, including immortal ones, are prey to other animals, such as fish and turtles. Polyps are also practically defenceless to predation by animals such as sea slugs and crustaceans. Jellyfish are, like the mythical Medusa, both beautiful and potentially dangerous. Found from pole to tropic, these mesmeric creatures form an important part of the sea's plankton and vary in size from the gigantic to the minute. Perceived as alien creatures and seen as best avoided, jellyfish nevertheless have the power to fascinate: with the sheer beauty of their translucent bells and long, trailing tentacles; with a mouth that doubles as an anus; and without a head or brain.These days, you’d be just as likely to see a plastic bag washed up on the beach as a jellyfish, although I don’t think it would bring in such a crowd! One issue I did have with this book was the way the dialogue was written. There was seemingly no variation, besides Suzy's internal dialogue, in the way everyone spoke. Sure, they could be mean, they could be kind, they could be just giving a report, but it all felt like the same person was talking each time. The dialogue was also handled in a sort of "after school special" kind of way. Don't get me wrong, "Sesame Street" is great, but not if a twelve-year-old boy is talking to a girl his age in that manner, the same way her parent or her teacher or her older brother would talk to her. Another reason the immortal jellyfish's spread around the globe may have gone unnoticed for so long is that they don't have a perceivable negative impact. Invasive species can be problematic, and some, such as zebra mussels in North America, wreak havoc that costs enormous sums of money to fix. Others, like the hippos introduced to Colombia about 30 years ago, pose threats to the native wildlife they coexist with. The Thing About Jellyfish is a great read for older teens and adults. It's full of depth, great writing and a young protagonist you can't help rooting for. T. dohrnii is sensitive, making it also difficult to rear in a lab for studies. But despite the challenges, one scientist is known to have had long-term success with captive immortal jellyfish.

This life cycle reversal can be repeated, and in perfect conditions, it may be that these jellyfish would never die of old age. Diana Nyad (America), who was forced to abandon several attempts to swim from Cuba to Florida due to jellyfish stings [5] Suzy's drastic vow of silence puts a strain on her relationship with her family. While in school, Suzy is all too painfully aware that she's considered that weird kid who has no friends and doesn't talk. The Thing About Jellyfish poignantly explores the pains of social anxiety and the general awkwardness of puberty. Morefield, Juliet (12 August 2015). "The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin". School Library Journal . Retrieved 10 June 2018. What my dad wanted, I suspect, was the thing everybody seems to want: small talk. I don't understand small talk. I don't even understand why it's called that - small talk - when it fills up so much space.

In the end, Suzanne," [she] continued, "it's a gift to spend time with people we care about. Even if it's imperfect. Even if the time doesn't end when, or how, we expected. Even when that person leaves us." Whenever I think about those two days—about the space between you ending and me knowing—I think about the stars. Did you know that the light from our nearest star takes four years to reach us? Which means when we see it—when we see any star—we are really seeing what it looked like in the past. All those twinkling lights, every star in the sky, could have burned out years ago—the entire night sky could be empty this very minute, and we wouldn’t even know it.