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WEEKLY READER BOOKS presents

hat lis aim

A Just Ask™ Book

Hi, my name is
Christopher!

by Chris Arvetis
and Carole Palmer

illustrated by
Terry Rose

FIELD PUBLICATIONS
MIDDLETOWN, CT.
 I've never seen so much water.
This isn't a lake or a river.
What is it?

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Why, it's an ocean vzs/

 An ocean-
whatisanocean?

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 Well, I could say that
it a is big, big lake.

But an ocean is special.

The water in an ocean
is different.

It not the same as the

is

fresh water in the lakes

and rivers.

This is because the streams

and rivers that flow into
the ocean collect salt
from the soil and rocks.
An ocean has a mixture
of salt and water.

K
Look here.
This is a map of the planet
we live on.
It is called Earth.
You can see all the water.
There is the Pacific Ocean,
the Atlantic Ocean, and
the Indian Ocean.
These are the three
biggest ones.
 I knew that!

Atlantic
Ocean

Indian
pacific
Ocean Ocean
Look at map A.
The Atlantic and Pacific come
together at the North Pole.
And map B shows that
all three oceans-

the Pacific, Atlantic,

and Indian-
come together
attheSouJhPole.
 Let's explore the ocean.
Along the coast here, the
land gently slopes down
into the water.

Inother areas, the land

stops and drops down into
deep, deep water.

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 mm

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As we look at the water,
it looks very green.
That because
is it is not
very deep here.
The light shines on the
sand, rocks, and plants
at the bottom.
As we go out farther into
the ocean, the water
becomes very blue.
The deeper the ocean, the
bluer the water becomes.
 " I
\

It's bluer out here!

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*7.

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That's a big wave
You can see ocean waves.
Big waves are made by
strong winds blowing
across a large part
of the ocean.
When a wave gets to
shore, touches bottom
it

and slows down.

It looks like this.

c<*
^mmmmmmmmm
 go out to sea.
Let's
Now we can see the
underwater sights.
The bottom of the ocean
is a lot like land.

There are valleys, hills,

cliffs, trenches, plains,

and mountains.
 Where a mountain sticks
up out of the water, an
island is formed.
The island is the top part
of the mountain.
There is water all around
the island.

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L—5* i4 >*

s
There are also huge volcanoes
underwater.
Some of them have been washed
smooth by the waves until
theybecame flat.
Look at that one down there.

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 Who are they?

Lfl> A
iGUMmn
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 Now let's meet some of the
plantsand animals that live
along the edge of the ocean.
Waves come up on land
and then go back down.
The waves bring mussels,
barnacles, fiddler crabs, and
other animals to live here.

.*

^
mm

—-(.*
MUSSEL
Away from the shore is another
section of the ocean.
The sunlight shines through
to the ocean bottom.
Sponges, starfish, jellyfish, clams,
crabs, lobsters, snails, and other fish
live in the seaweeds that grow here.

SPONGES
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 v

I
JELLYFISH

I'

Who is he?

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7* STAR FISH
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v

CLAM
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Farther away from this
section is the open sea.
Inthe upper layers of the
ocean, there are huge
schools of fish-
whales, squid, sharks, •

and porpoises live here.

Most plants float on the water.
There are other tiny plants
that we can see only
(f*
with a microscope.

SQUID
 Going down from this part,
we see very few plants.
Sunlight does not get down
this far, and most plants cannot
live without sunlight.

Some animals you can find here

are giant squid and sperm whales.

fl

t
 !

It's always dark

down here
KL^&L 1

\*

The ocean is a strange

and wonderful place.
It has mountains, islands,

saltwater, and waves.

And lots of plants and
I animals.
And that's what
an ocean is.
 "Look at the big lake!" says
Christopher. "That's not a lake.
It's an ocean," says Pelican.
Christopher rides over the waves
on Pelican's back and dives
deep down into the ocean to see
what's there.

What Is an x >
Ocean?

The JUST ASKtm series explains the world to your

child. In simple words and colorful pictures, these
Weekly Reader books answer the questions your
youngster loves to ask.

Weekly Reader