Book: Astro the Steller Sea Lion

We love books in our house and being a science teacher I especially love a good children’s book that relates to science!

Astro the Steller Sea Lion is just such a book. Jeanne Harvey has done a great job of bringing to life the true story of Astro.

Astro is a Steller sea lion (an endangered species) pup who lost his mother when he was only a few days old. He was then rescued and rehabilitated by the Sausalito Marine Mammal Center. The book tells of his subsequent adventures, including swimming under the Golden Gate Bridge and joining a walk-a-thon at a school. Eventually he travels across the country to his current home at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut.

OUR REVIEW

My son is 4 and he has brought me this book quite a few times in the last few weeks as his book of choice before nap time.   I like how the story is told simply, but accurately with only a few words that I had to explain to him.  The pictures are an intriguing cross between real life and artist renderings, but they go with the words on each page and illustrate the story well.

At the end of the book are a few pages with specific facts about Steller Sea Lions and seals and sea lions in general.

My only complaint about the book is that in a few places the sentences just don’t flow for some reason.  But perhaps that’s my English-teacher-mother in my head!

Overall, we highly recommend this book, especially as an addition to a science lesson on marine mammals!

A complimentary copy of the book was provided in exchange for my honest review.