Seababy: A Little Otter Returns Home~by Ellen Levine, illustrator Jon Van Zyle

 

 

 

Publisher: Walker & Company

Publication date: March 13, 2012

 

Summary: This children’s book is about a baby otter who ends up getting separated from his mother during a horrible storm.  Luckily, he ends up getting saved by a man who takes him to an aquarium that teaches him how to survive in the wild.  He learns: swimming, eating, and diving.

Genre: The genre of this children’s picture book is fiction along with being juvenile fiction.

Personal Response:  I was at first sad when the baby otter got separated from his mother.  But, overall I enjoyed this book because I like how with help he learned to survive.

ELLEN LEVINE Bio: Ellen grew up in New York City and currently resides there as well.  She is the eldest of her sisters.  Ellen ended up graduating from the University of Chicago with a M.A. in political science.  After graduating she decided to go be a teaching assistant grad student at Berkeley where she stayed for two years.  She ended up leaving Berkeley because she decided she wanted make documentary films.  So, she moved back to New York and worked at Public Televisions then CBS.  She then “realized so many of the stories she worked on for TV raised legal questions,” so she decided to attend NYU School of Law for three years.  After law school she decided to move to Philadelphia where she was a clerk for a federal judge for a year.  She loved the country life and hiking.  But, writing stories is her ultimate passion ever since she was a kid.  Along with being a writer and hiker she is also a woodcarver.  Ellen is the author of more than twenty-five books.  Both books “Henry’s Freedom Box” and “Darkness Over Denmark” received the Caldecott Honor.

Other books by Ellen Levine:

“Henry’s Freedom box”

“If your name was changed at Ellis Island”

“Freedom’s children: young civil rights activists tell their own story”

“Darkness over Denmark”

“If you traveled west in a covered wagon”

“If you traveled on the underground railroad”

“The tree that would not die”

“Catch a tiger by the toe”

“If you lived with the Iroquois”

“If you lived at the time of Martin Luther King”

Motivational Activities / Reader Response Questions:

If you were the sea otter and got separated where would you travel?

Draw a picture of the sea otter at the aquarium.

If you were hired to design the cover what would it look like?  Draw the picture on a piece of paper and color.  Present to the class.

Did the sea otter ever see his mother again?

What did the man teach him to do?

Bibliography:

Levine, E. (2012). Biography. In Ellen Levine. Retrieved December 1, 2012, from http://www.ellenlevineauthor.com/bio.htm

Levine, E. (2012). Seababy: A Little Otter Returns Home. N.p.: Walker & Company.