GUEST BLOGGER JILANNE HOFFMANN
In The Ocean’s Heart: The Tiny Creatures Essential to Life readers plunge far below the ocean’s surface where billions of restless animals called zooplankton dwell in the Twilight Zone. Some are tiny, some enormous, and most are exquisitely strange and beautiful. As the author of this story, I wanted to create tension, movement, and awe.
- Tension, to engage readers and get them to turn the pages.
- Movement, so that readers could feel the rhythmic pulse of the ocean and the never-ending migration that’s happening somewhere in the ocean every minute of the day.
- Awe so that readers would also grow in appreciation and curiosity about ocean life that is often overlooked. This leads to understanding and caring about these tiny animals that need our protection.
How can students learn to use tension, movement and awe in their own writing?
By using The Ocean’s Heart as a mentor text. The setting sun cues the zooplanktons’ journey to surface waters for a midnight feast on trillions of tiny plants (and each other). It’s a daunting, perilous, nightly migration that transforms the dark ocean into a carnival of lights amidst a feeding frenzy in this eat before being eaten world—a journey that’s vital to all life on Earth.
Ask students to read through The Ocean’s Heart and identify the sources of tension in the story.
In general, discuss why tension is important in storytelling, even in nonfiction.
Students may note specific details that increase tension such as:
Visual elements
- Dark illustrations
- Strange-shaped animals
- Animals being seized by predators
Narrative elements
- High stakes – life/death – use of the word “survival” – these creatures must swim to reach their food to survive
- A ticking clock – swimming long distances in limited time (sunset to sunrise)
- Violence-related verbs – examples include “seized,” “biting,” “tearing,” “gulping”
- Fear-related verbs – examples include “waiting,” “hiding,” “evading”
Ask students to write a short story or poem or draw a story in graphic novel format that incorporates some of the elements of tension they’ve identified.
Ask students to read through The Ocean’s Heart and identify how the author and illustrator created a sense of movement in the story.
Why do students think it was important to the author and illustrator to do this?
Students may note details like:
Narrative elements
- Adjectives and participle adjectives (“ing” form of a verb that describes a noun) – “restless,” “glowing,” “breaking,” “stinging”
- Present participle verbs – use of “ing” to show ongoing action – examples include “hiding,” “waiting,” “rowing,” “stroking,” “spinning,” “spiraling”
- Use of repetition – “paddle and rise/dive”
- Story fades out like the end of a song – the story continues even as the distance grows between the reader and characters in the story
- The story’s circular structure – wait, rise, eat, dive, wait, rise….
Visual elements
- Illustrator’s slanting animal movement upward to the right
- Vertical illustrations showing rising from/diving down into the depths
- Water ripples
- Tentacles that curve
- Schools of fish
Ask students to write a short story or poem or draw a story in graphic novel format that incorporates some of the elements of movement they’ve identified.
Ask students to read through The Ocean’s Heart and identify how the author and illustrator created a sense of awe in the story.
Why do students think the author wanted to create a sense of awe?
Students may note details like:
Narrative elements
- Word choice: “Behold their strange and glorious beauty!” “Behold” creates a sense of grandeur or majesty. Pairing “strange” and “glorious” evokes a sense of fascination and wonder. How can something so strange be so beautiful?
- Use of metaphors – examples include:
- equating zooplankton to “stars” and the ocean to a “galaxy”
- “Underwater meteor shower,” “sparklers,” “lighting bolts”
- “Candlelight of stars”
Visual elements
- Animals that glow
- Strangeness (the unusual can bring about a sense of awe) but also beauty
- Surrounding darkness feels a bit mysterious, and also creates a sense of the vastness of the ocean
Wrap-up
Ask students to write a short story or poem or draw a story in graphic novel format that incorporates some of the elements of awe they’ve identified.
Ask students to seek out other picture books that they find engaging and analyze how the author/illustrator captured their interest. It’s fun to use mentor texts to learn how to improve students’ skills!
Featured image credit: “some zooplankton creations from today’s workshop with @kiac Yukon Riverside Arts Festival. #beingadrift” by meganleigh is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Jilanne Hoffmann is an engineer-turned-children’s author who loves the natural world and wants to share that wonder with readers. Jilanne’s middle grade novel in verse/prose, HeartLand, received a starred review from School Library Journal and is “highly recommended for all middle grade collections.” She’s also the author of the nonfiction picture books, The Ocean’s Heart, which received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist, and A River of Dust, which received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, a Junior Library Guild gold designation, the Louis J. Batton Author’s Award from the American Meteorological Society, and named to the Garden State Book List. It was also listed as a best children’s book by Bank Street College and American Library Association. She lives in San Francisco with her family. Website: https://jilannehoffmann.com/ Social Media: IG @jilanne2694 Bluesky: @jilanne.bsky.social FB: Jilanne.Hoffmann.96
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