Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children 1994 (NSTA/CBC)
1993 "Pick of the Lists" (ABA)
1996 Garden State (NJ) Children's Nonfiction Award

My Visit to the Aquarium

ANNOTATION

During his visit to an aquarium, a boy finds out about the characteristics and environments of many different marine and freshwater creatures.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

¿¿¿Children and adults of various ages, races, and physical abilities tour a public aquarium to look at many of the world's marine creatures. The language is almost lyrical¿¿¿[and] the story is alive with color and action.''SLJ. ¿¿¿A versatile author at her best.¿¿¿ In the large, cheerful illustrations, action-filled spreads are varied with portrait vignettes, and underwater scenes with the visitors' enthusiastic responses.''K.

Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children 1994 (NSTA/CBC)1993 "Pick of the Lists" (ABA)1996 Garden State (NJ) Children's Nonfiction Award

Author Biography:

Aliki grew up in Philadelphia in a very Greek family. Her talent for drawing, first recognized by her kindergarten teacher, was encouraged by her parents and other teachers she will never forget.

After graduating from the Philadelphia College of Art, she started a career in advertising art. She married Franz Brandenberg and lived in Switzerland for three years, where she wrote and illustrated her first book, The Story of William Tell.

After they moved to New York, she wrote My Five Senses, the book that changed her career and her life. Besides her own books, Aliki has illustrated many by other authors, including Franz. Their children, Jason and Alexa, who have artistic careers of their own, appear in many of Aliki's books as cats, mice, or themselves.

Aliki loves music, theater, films, museums, reading, and digging in her garden in London, where she lives. She travels frequently to the United States, Greece, Switzerland, and other countries, many of which are reflected in her books.NOTES FROM ALIKI

0nce, when I was reading one of my books to Jason, who was just learningwords, I asked him, "What is my name?" He said, "Byaliki." I laughed. But in many ways I am a bi-Aliki. Greek and American. Bilingual. Author and illustrator. Writer of fiction and nonfiction-books that come from inside out (feeling books), and outside in (research books).

I had no thought of becoming a writer until it happened. But early on, I developed a lifelong habit of writing down my feelings. I realized it helped me understand my hurt, anger, bewilderment, or happiness. Words flowed out into poetry, letters, and journals. It was practice for later on.

I wrote The Two of Them when my father died. I wrote We Are Best friends when we moved from New York to London. I wrote about my childhood seaside vacations in Those Summers. In fact, it was on one such family vacation that I was born unexpectedly (in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey-but we never lived there)!

Marianthe's Story, two books in one volume, is very much my own. In one of its two parts-Painted Words-Mari is lucky to have such an understanding teacher and the ability to express herself through pictures (as was 1). In Spoken Memories, the villagers are composites of family and friends, and the voice is often my grandmother's. She cared passionately about education and passed it on to us.

All by Myself! — snapped after watching my nephew Peter, who was just learning to dress himself We can take nothing for granted. All skills-from the simplest to the most complicated-are learned. They take patience, perseverance, and determination. With some, a little talent helps. Life is one big challenge. I'm still trying to learn to swim.

My research books come from a fascination with a subject I know only a glimmer about. It can take three years to read, delve, dig, write, and repeat the process for the illustrations. It can be torture, because Virgos dont like to make mistakes.

To write My Visit to the Aquarium, I visited eleven aquariums-the most fun research ever. But then I had to get the right fish into the right tank. My Visit to the Zoo was even harder. Nine zoos, hundreds of books, magazines, and related matter. And with all due respect to the author, the illustrator has twice the work. I call it hard fun.

All books-read or made-change lives. None more than William Shakespeare & the Globe. I was challenged by wanting to compress 40.0 years into 38 pages, to tell (in words and pictures) a story that comes full circle. It didn't help that we- know very little about Shakespeare the man. But I was enveloped by his words — which brought him to life. When I finally finished, the pain of loss-which lasted months-was like parting from a beloved friend.

FROM THE CRITICS

BookList - Elizabeth Bush

A young boy enthusiastically shares tidbits of information about aquatic life as readers join him on a tour of the aquarium. Fish facts, selected for their child-appeal and delivered in a brisk, conversational tone, are neatly organized by marine environment. As each fish is described within the boy's narration, it is also identified in an illustration by clear, unobtrusive script. The aquarium's inventive displays (based on those in several actual aquariums) vie with the fish for center stage. Visitors pass through a glass tunnel teeming with tropical fish, gape at a three-story kelp forest tank, and touch the fish in a shallow tide pool. The dominant blues and greens of Aliki's watercolors are not only cool and inviting; they also provide visual continuity amid the riot of brightly colored fish. Readers who delight in Aliki's attention to detail will not be disappointed. Watch for the marvelously varied expressions on visitors' faces and for our young guide's souvenir from the aquarium bookshop--a copy of "My Visit to the Aquarium".