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One Nighttime Sea
From 1 to 10 and back again, dragonfish, morays, and other nighttime sea creatures fill this stunning counting book, featuring lush cut-paper art and an infectious, informative rhyming text.
All night long, while you are asleep, millions of sea creatures move through the deep...
This lavishly illustrated counting book offers a fascinating peek at ocean nightlife. Richly-textured collage art and infectious rhyme reveal the habits and habitats of otters, spider crabs, turtle hatchlings, and other nocturnal ocean dwellers. Young children will love acting out the action words associated with each animal, while counting creatures from 1 to 10, and from 10 back down to 1. Curious readers can learn more about each of the 20 creatures featured in a detailed endnote.
All night long, while you are asleep, millions of sea creatures move through the deep...
This lavishly illustrated counting book offers a fascinating peek at ocean nightlife. Richly-textured collage art and infectious rhyme reveal the habits and habitats of otters, spider crabs, turtle hatchlings, and other nocturnal ocean dwellers. Young children will love acting out the action words associated with each animal, while counting creatures from 1 to 10, and from 10 back down to 1. Curious readers can learn more about each of the 20 creatures featured in a detailed endnote.
40 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2003
1 person is currently reading
36 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 31, 2019
I loved that this book shows all kinds of sea creatures, many that the children would never have heard of.
April 24, 2018
This children’s book is fairly short and uses vivid collages to combine marine biology and counting for young readers. By counting animals found in the ocean from one to ten and back down to one, math is shown to young readers in an alternate context. The animals shown to young readers are very diverse and the background colors of the collages become darker as the book progresses and marine life in the great depths of the ocean are explored. The book uses specialized vocabulary when it references polyps, butterfly fish, and giant squids; each of these creatures is not usually referenced in ocean books aimed at young children. Rose appeals to a diverse group of wildlife in her book and includes a list of fun facts in the back of the book to accompany the illustrations and contextualize the creatures that appear on the book’s pages. By including small paragraphs about each of the animals in the back of the book Rose does not crowd the images and numbers with text and instead allows the illustrations to pop out to young readers.
The main focus of this book is on marine life in the ocean, but by including numbers and focusing on counting Rose shows a tool in math in an outside context while giving young readers one way of approaching the images of previously unseen creatures on creatures on each page. Though this book does not primarily focus upon mathematics, a welcome addition to the text would be a brief explanation by the author about why she chose to omit the number zero. For some young children the conception of zero is very difficult because it is a highly abstract concept, so it would be helpful if Rose were to have included a brief note claiming something like, “Zero was not included within this book because there is no where in the ocean that is without life.” Rose shows young readers that they can count each of the organisms on the books pages as they take in various animals’ beauty in different marine environments.
This book does not have a narrative, but instead seems cyclical in its construction. Rather than following a whale calf and its mother through the sea, the book uses counting animals as an organizing principle and first visits a whale mother and her one calf in the ocean at night before going down to deeper depths to count other animals. At ten the reader counts a vertical two page illustration of turtle hatchlings entering the ocean under a full moon, and then the reader submerges back into the depths of the ocean. As the numbers begin to decrease, counting down to one the background shift and begin to lighten till a baby seal is greeted at its birth in a new day. This retreat from a narrative structure demonstrates the diversity of formats and approaches to writing children’s books. By focusing on counting and using numbers as an organizing principle, Rose engages readers without having to create a plot. In this book the marriage between math and marine biology allows for this structuring without the repeated images feeling monotonous, because there is an underlying structure organizing the introduction of the illustrations and creatures.
The main focus of this book is on marine life in the ocean, but by including numbers and focusing on counting Rose shows a tool in math in an outside context while giving young readers one way of approaching the images of previously unseen creatures on creatures on each page. Though this book does not primarily focus upon mathematics, a welcome addition to the text would be a brief explanation by the author about why she chose to omit the number zero. For some young children the conception of zero is very difficult because it is a highly abstract concept, so it would be helpful if Rose were to have included a brief note claiming something like, “Zero was not included within this book because there is no where in the ocean that is without life.” Rose shows young readers that they can count each of the organisms on the books pages as they take in various animals’ beauty in different marine environments.
This book does not have a narrative, but instead seems cyclical in its construction. Rather than following a whale calf and its mother through the sea, the book uses counting animals as an organizing principle and first visits a whale mother and her one calf in the ocean at night before going down to deeper depths to count other animals. At ten the reader counts a vertical two page illustration of turtle hatchlings entering the ocean under a full moon, and then the reader submerges back into the depths of the ocean. As the numbers begin to decrease, counting down to one the background shift and begin to lighten till a baby seal is greeted at its birth in a new day. This retreat from a narrative structure demonstrates the diversity of formats and approaches to writing children’s books. By focusing on counting and using numbers as an organizing principle, Rose engages readers without having to create a plot. In this book the marriage between math and marine biology allows for this structuring without the repeated images feeling monotonous, because there is an underlying structure organizing the introduction of the illustrations and creatures.
July 2, 2018
Count up to ten and back down with sea creatures.
Ages: 3 - 6
**Like my reviews? I also have hundreds of detailed reports that I offer too. These reports give a complete break-down of everything in the book, so you'll know just how clean it is or isn't. I also have Clean Guides (downloadable PDFs) which enable you to clean up your book before reading it! Visit my website: The Book Radar.
Ages: 3 - 6
**Like my reviews? I also have hundreds of detailed reports that I offer too. These reports give a complete break-down of everything in the book, so you'll know just how clean it is or isn't. I also have Clean Guides (downloadable PDFs) which enable you to clean up your book before reading it! Visit my website: The Book Radar.
October 30, 2023
This was a really good counting book that counted all of the way up to ten and back down again (which I feel like you don’t see often), and it had some really cool visuals and information about sea creatures. This book was doing everything right, but something about it didn’t 100% strike a chord with me, which is why I give it 4 stars instead of 5.
August 4, 2019
Fun ocean themed counting book that counts up to 10 and then back down. Information about the animals is included at the end of the book. I enjoyed the paper cut illustrations with a nice level of detail. I was not a fan of the font but it was a good size for the text length and page size.
September 24, 2025
Pictures were pretty. the counting is fun, but I got kind of board.
October 14, 2011
One Nighttime Sea, written by Deborah Lee Rose and illustrated by Steve Jenkins, will be great to read to any young child learning how to count to ten. The reader is taken on a journey through the ocean meeting new sea animals and learning the numbers 1-10. Once the journey seems to come to an end, the 10 sea turtles begin the journey back to the number 1. The story fits into the counting genre of picture books.
a.) The incredible use of rhyming words, timed language and intriguing tone brings joy to every page of the book.
b.) Beginning with the number one and counting until the number 10 “All night long, while you are asleep, millions of sea creatures move through the deep” (p. 1). The language continues through the entire book as one more number is added to the creatures introduced throughout the ocean journey. The use of language and tone will provide the young listener with great ways to remember numbers, as well as facts about the animals.
c.) Examples of the incredible text and rhythm include phases such as, “nine steller sea lions jostle for turf, ten turtle hatchings plunge into the surf”, and “six firefly squid do a shimmering dance, five hunger hammerheads wait for their chance” (p. 15-18 & p. 25-28). As the story grows to the number ten then back down to the number 1, young children stay interested in sea creatures like the “three white belugas”, the “seven reef lobsters”, and the “one brand-new seal pup” (p. 5, 13 & 36).
This story is a great read for any young child learning how to count from 1-10. As an educator of this lesson, I am certain this book will be a great asset to any preschool and kindergarten classroom. The student will take interest in the intriguing rhythm and rhyme and will also enjoy reading about the many sea creatures that live deep beneath the sea’s surface. Many activities, such as number ordering, number recognition and memorization games, can be incorporated into lessons used in the classroom.
a.) The incredible use of rhyming words, timed language and intriguing tone brings joy to every page of the book.
b.) Beginning with the number one and counting until the number 10 “All night long, while you are asleep, millions of sea creatures move through the deep” (p. 1). The language continues through the entire book as one more number is added to the creatures introduced throughout the ocean journey. The use of language and tone will provide the young listener with great ways to remember numbers, as well as facts about the animals.
c.) Examples of the incredible text and rhythm include phases such as, “nine steller sea lions jostle for turf, ten turtle hatchings plunge into the surf”, and “six firefly squid do a shimmering dance, five hunger hammerheads wait for their chance” (p. 15-18 & p. 25-28). As the story grows to the number ten then back down to the number 1, young children stay interested in sea creatures like the “three white belugas”, the “seven reef lobsters”, and the “one brand-new seal pup” (p. 5, 13 & 36).
This story is a great read for any young child learning how to count from 1-10. As an educator of this lesson, I am certain this book will be a great asset to any preschool and kindergarten classroom. The student will take interest in the intriguing rhythm and rhyme and will also enjoy reading about the many sea creatures that live deep beneath the sea’s surface. Many activities, such as number ordering, number recognition and memorization games, can be incorporated into lessons used in the classroom.
November 30, 2009
This is a nice picture book for young children with lovely rhythm and rhyme. It's a great counting book, featuring a variety of twenty different nocturnal sea creatures, including porpoises, sea lions, spider crabs, and more. This book teaches forward counting from one to ten in addition to backward counting from ten to one, a feature not all counting books have. The book also provides more information about each of the twenty sea creatures featured in the book at the end for those who are curious and want to learn more, very educational. The illustrations are fantastic, beautiful! I highly recommend this book!
February 17, 2015
This book would be for preschool or kindergarten aged students. I would read this book during an ocean unit or animal unit. Unlike most counting books, when this book gets to ten, it goes back down to one. I also really enjoy the illustrations of this book and the way the book feels. I would be able to have the students help me read by having them look at the picture and tell me what it is. Also for older students I could have them pick an animal and then find other books with that animal in them and draw a picture of that animal or write a sentence about it.
Read
February 2, 2014This is a great book for using when working on counting. It counts from 1-10 then back down from 10-1. It would be a good book to use as a model for making a felt story board for preschoolers to use on their own. They could follow the book pages and use the felt cutouts to count along with it. The animals illustrations were also fun to look at. This book could also be used when learning about different sea animals.
June 17, 2014
This counting book offers artistic, attractive illustrations of the sea animals out from dusk to dawn used to count from 10 down to 1 in charming verse. The end repeats the count with additional information about each animal. My grandchildren haven't latched onto it yet, but it's a beautiful and informative book, so I hope they decide to like it.
January 7, 2015
Absolutely fantastic! The textures in Steve Jenkins' paper cut illustrations are marvelous and I caught myself trying to touch them multiple times as I read. The details are wonderful. As for the story, I love how it counts both up to ten and back down from. The selection of sea creatures is splendid and quite varied and theres a great info area for each animal in the back. Love it!
April 19, 2012
This would be an excellent book for kindergarten students to use when practicing and learning counting. The book uses a fun rhythm and rhyming scheme that in engaging for students. It also uses many undersea animals so it could also be used to facilitate a discussion on undersea organisms.
August 30, 2012
This is my all time favorite bedtime book. My son eventually learned it by heart and would recite it while I read it. It is a great book, counting from one to ten and then back again with wondrous sea creatures. The art work is beautiful and soothing!
March 28, 2010
Counting up to 10 and countng back down, this title's backdrop is beautiful subdued color illustrations of sea life.
March 20, 2011
i like brighter, clearer pictures but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with these pictures, they just aren't my favorite style
June 12, 2012
Really fun pictures. Counting book.
May 15, 2015
A counting book with cute illustrations of sea creatures. It counts up to 10 and then back down again.
April 9, 2017
We really enjoyed this rhyming counting book filled with sea creatures. First counting up to ten, then down to one! Beautiful pictures & extra information about the creatures in the back pages.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews