This Is a Sea Cow

by Cassandra Federman, Cassandra Federman (Illustrator)

Overview

2021 Redbud Read-Aloud Book Award Masterlist

Writing a school report on sea cows? You might ask this sea cow what SHE thinks!

When an imaginative second-grader writes a school report about sea cows, the subject is not happy with her portrayal. Sea Cow—or Manatee, as she prefers to be called—comes to life on the pages of the report and decides to defend herself against unflattering comparisons to set the record straight with fascinating facts about manatees.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807578667
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	09/01/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Lexile:	AD530L (what's this?)
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Cassandra Federman is a writer and illustrator in California. She wanted to grow up to be a comic book artist and a marine biologist. She decided this book accomplishes both of those things. Her first book is This Is a Sea Cow.

Editorial Reviews

2021 Redbud Read-Aloud Book Award Masterlist

"This engaging account is disguised as a homework assignment on marine mammals. Digitally collaged art combines the paper of the report with photos of pencils and crayons to emulate a student's workspace. An appealing first look."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2019-06-10
The manatee subject of a school report objects so strongly to being compared to a cow that she barges in to correct the writer.

This engaging account is disguised as a homework assignment on marine mammals. Federman's report is written by hand, in pencil, on lined paper, but the manatee in her crayon illustrations comes to life, commenting on the text in speech bubbles that contain large, legible type. She's not a cow. She's sure she's not related to an elephant but is quite taken with being seen as a mermaid. Various interesting facts are conveyed in the process, and there are more (from the manatee) in an afterword. Federman's manatee is basically a shmoo-shaped blue blob with eyes, an expressive snout and mouth, and a tail instead of legs, but in the frontmatter, there's a more realistic diagram, a portion of a photograph, and a portion of a map of the Florida coast and Belize, both places where West Indian manatees can be found. Digitally collaged art combines the paper of the report with photos of pencils and crayons to emulate a student's workspace. Finally, there's a mention of manatee adoption programs for readers who have also decided the manatee is their "new favorite animal." Pair with titles by Jim Arnosky—A Manatee Morning (2000), All about Manatees (2008), or Slow Down for Manatees, (2010)—for a more detailed picture.

An appealing first look. (Informational picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews