High Tide for Horseshoe Crabs [Hardcover]

Horseshoe crabs, shorebirds, and humans converge in a frenzy of activity.

Every spring millions of horseshoe crabs crawl to the beaches of Delaware Bay to lay their eggs. But they aren’t the only ones crowding ashore. Flocks of shorebirds migrating north from South America stop to feed on the horseshoe crab eggs. People also flock to the scene. Scientists and tourists turn out to see the spectacle and learn more about the creatures that call this habitat home for a few weeks. 

Alan Marks' gorgeous paintings bring the reader down to the shoreline to observe this exciting annual event that interconnects species in a web of life and an ancient food chain.*In a natural-world extravaganza, horseshoe crabs, birds and people meet up each spring on the shores of the Delaware Bay. This remarkable event is chronicled for younger readers and listeners with a simple two-level text and watercolor-and-pencil illustrations that correctly portray the various visitors: the crabs who've come ashore to lay their eggs; the red knots, sanderlings and ruddy turnstones stopping on their long migration north for the feast; and the scientists and vacationers who've come to marvel and record the annual event. Marks' soft paintings bring young readers into the story by including a recognizable, possibly Asian-American, young girl as a focal character, one of the onlookers. Short simple paragraphs, each with a two-word headline, are set on top of the double-page spreads. The headlines summarize, spread by spread: It's starting. / They're arriving. / They're flapping. / They're traveling. / They're laying. / They're landing. / IT'S HAPPENING! And so forth. The narrative thus conveyed is simple and reliant on illustrations to understand antecedents, but it's also accurate and informative. It's followed by a more detailed explanation for older readers of the crab's life cycle and behavior, its part in the food web, its importance to humans, especially in medicinelƒ#