Water Beds ─ Sleeping in the Ocean

Water Beds: Sleeping in the Ocean is a soothing bedtime story that answers the question of how marine mammals - animals that breathe air manage to sleep in the ocean. Youngsters meet ten marine mammals, including sea otters, bottlenose dolphins, manatees, harbor seals, humpback whales and walruses, and learn about each animal’s unique sleeping habits. Although the brief portraits are based on up-to-date scientific research, author Gail Langer Karwoski weaves the facts into simple, poetic language. Connie McLennan’s rich oil paintings capture the ocean’s habitats and its appealing creatures. The story invites children to drift into peaceful sleep on the gentle waves of imagination. An educational supplement in the back of the book includes teaching trivia about marine mammals, their sleep habits, and how they have adapted to their watery environment, and make-your-own marine mammal craft using various animal adaptations.

Gail Langer Karwoski (Water Beds) is an award-winning children’s book writer. In addition to Julie the Rockhound and Water Beds: Sleeping in the Ocean (Mom’s Choice Best Children’s Picture Book Author for 2005), published by Sylvan Dell, Gail has written six other books for young readers including: Tsumani: The True Story of an April Fool’s Day Disaster and Quake! Disaster in San Francisco, 1906. Before becoming a full time author, Gail taught in Georgia public schools. She frequently returns to schools as a visiting author. Gail married a rockhound. On their honeymoon, they hiked through lush western forests and stark “forests” of petrified wood. They dove into foamy aquamarine waves in the Pacific Ocean and dug into crumbly turquoise deposits in the Southwestern desert. Since then, they’ve gone “treasure hunting” for geodes, fossils, and crystals. At the schools where she taught, her classroom was famous because of the “rock box.” Now, as owners of a quartz deposit in South Carolina where visitors can try their luck at digging for crystals, Gail and her husband have watched hundreds of people – both young and old – delight in finding sparkly quartz crystals. She wrote Julie the Rockhound to share this delight in our earth’s treasures with children and their parents. Gail lives near the University of Georgia with her husband, two daughters, and three bossy cats.