Jellyfish: A Natural History

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Morefield, Juliet (12 August 2015). "The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin". School Library Journal . Retrieved 10 June 2018. An impressive glow-in-the dark cover sets the tone for this luminous book about an unassuming little jellyfish who discovers she holds considerable power within. Not one of the signs of asperger's was used properly to me... IF the author intended Suzy to have the syndrome or be on the autism spectrum. Since the book didn't mention either way and the therapist in The Thing About Jellyfish who SHOULD have seen the signs said nothing to the parents I'm operating under the impression that Suzy is normal... Book smart but people slow. In the end, not-talking means the same thing, more or less, as small talk. Nothing. Besides, I’ll bet so-called small talk has ended more friendships than silence ever did.

Medusa cells and polyp cells are different - some cells and organs only occur in the polyp, others only in the adult jellyfish. Transdifferentiation reprogrammes the medusa's specialised cells to become specialised polyp cells, allowing the jellyfish to regrow themselves in an entirely different body plan to the free-swimming jellyfish they had recently been. They can then mature again from there as normal, producing new, genetically identical medusae. Science Plays Lead Role In New Book Aimed At Young Adults". WBUR. 28 September 2015 . Retrieved 10 June 2018. By now I was twelve years old and starting my second year of middle school. I knew a few things about grown-ups. And here’s one of the things I knew: Grown-ups are like everybody else—they don’t actually want you to say what you’re thinking. I liked the way patterns repeated themselves in this universe, the way a solar system could resemble an atom, or a mountain range seen from outer space could look just like a fern leaf covered with frost. I liked the thought that three billion bugs fly over my head in a single month in summer or that an inch of soil might contain millions of creatures from thousands of different species. Jellyfish outwits predatory Swordfish by luring him into the darkest depths of the ocean. But when Swordfish encounters a predator of his own, Jellyfish comes to his aid and teaches him a lesson in the process.I LOVE jellyfish... Okay, I used to love jellyfish, because this book totally killed that love. I didn't know jellyfish were a menace in the ocean. The facts... or should I say, the HARD TRUTHS about jellyfish all come out in The Thing About Jellyfish. Jellyfish are the villain and we see them from so many "based on real life" facts, including the authorities on jellyfish. Publishers Weekly gave the novel a starred review, calling it "a shining example of the highs and lows of early adolescence, as well as a testament to the grandeur of the natural world." [8] Jacqueline Kelly, reviewing for The New York Times, said it was "heartfelt and fascinating" and believed "a lot of children [...] might not only benefit from this book but also [would] find themselves deeply moved by it." [9] Awards [ edit ]

Benjamin, Ali (22 September 2015). The Thing About Jellyfish. Hachette. ISBN 9780316380836 . Retrieved 10 June 2018. Whenever I think about those two days—about the space between you ending and me knowing—I think about the stars. Did you know that the light from our nearest star takes four years to reach us? Which means when we see it—when we see any star—we are really seeing what it looked like in the past. All those twinkling lights, every star in the sky, could have burned out years ago—the entire night sky could be empty this very minute, and we wouldn’t even know it. When the medusa of this species is physically damaged or experiences stresses such as starvation, instead of dying it shrinks in on itself, reabsorbing its tentacles and losing the ability to swim. It then settles on the seafloor as a blob-like cyst. My parents have a word for what I do—constant-talking , like that is a single word—and they explain to me that it is important to let others talk, too. Ask people questions, my mom always says. It’s not a conversation if you’re constant-talking. And I try to remember that, to ask people things. Through Suzy's quest to prove her theory, the reader is treated to a handful of fascinating facts about jellyfish. I now know that jellyfish don't have brains, that some species can clone themselves and the various fatal effects of a jellyfish sting. I am sure my new found jellyfish expertise will come in handy someday, but for now they're just making me paranoid of swimming in open water. No more swimsuits for me.This makes for a bit of a hybrid: this is both a coffee table book with great, clear illustrations & a fairly thorough introduction to jellyfish biology. I doubt experienced marine biologists with an interest in the subject will learn a lot of new things from Gershwin, but for the general public the book is detailed nonetheless. As a reading experience, the format gets a bit monotonous towards the end – especially as the end chapter is the least interesting of all, with the least depth. Still, let me be clear: this is – by far – the best book on jellyfish available. If you want more, you’ll need to dive in the world of scientific journals. A prevailing theory is that ships are responsible for widely dispersing the creatures through Earth's oceans. The jellyfish's immortality makes it an excellent hitchhiker, after all. Suzy's take on the world is both academic and poetic, despite her young age. She has one of the most romantic worldviews yet encountered in a children's book: On a Sunday evening a couple of weeks ago I met three friends for drinks and tapas at a favorite wine bar in town. We're writers, the three of us, one with nearly two dozen novels published—she and I are launching our next releases together in September, her 19th, my 2nd. Another will celebrate her debut, a literary fiction psychological thriller, in early 2018. And the third friend is in the agent query trenches with a novel that could be adult literary fiction or YA, depending on the spin and the audience. Knowing what a crazy-gifted writer she is, we offered our support and wisdom, assuring her it was a matter of time before the right agent fell in love with her story. What my dad wanted, I suspect, was the thing everybody seems to want: small talk. But I don’t understand small talk. I don’t even understand why it’s called that—small talk—when it fills up so much space.

I’ve always been fascinated by jellyfish. One of my earliest memories is the discovery of a huge washed up jellyfish in Wales, sprawled out on the sand like a strange alien creature. She teaches her class about jellyfish lifecycles – – – "jelly start off on us as a plant, cleaning to the bottom of the sea, and how in that phase of life, they are a planula. But that when they are grown up, when they break away from the seafloor and are free to pulse through the ocean, they have taken the form of a medusa." She has so much more to say...( this is the first time she has spoken at all since before the beginning of the school year) ... She has a message she desperately wants to get across--- but her teacher stops her...they have run out of time... She lets her continue - a little-.but she still never finishes... If I could fly to Boston and visit the touch tank, jellies exhibit and giant ocean tank...I would. If I ever 'do' get to Boston, (one of my wishes), The aquarium is one of first places I want to visit.

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This book is meant for middle schoolers, and despite the delicate topics explored, Ali Benjamin's introspective prose remains middle-school appropriate. My only issue is that even after all the build-up for Suzy's closure doubling as a grand adventure, the denouement felt somewhat rushed and all too convenient. I was super excited to read The Thing About Jellyfish because I noticed a review that said "she’s probably on the autism spectrum" though it never explicitly says. I love mental health of this nature and especially autism and asperger's syndrome which I know quite a bit about. And yeah there are some pretty textbook signs that are used in the course of the story. And once I did, the very next day at the literary fiction writer-friend's bookstore she owns with her poet-husband, I could not put it down. The Thing About Jellyfish is the heartrending tale of Suzy Swanson, a little girl who just encountered the Worst Thing: death. To make sense of her grief, Suzy turns to the wonders of the universe and the dazzling expanse of her imagination.