World Without Fish - by Mark Kurlansky (Paperback)

About the Book

A frightening look at the looming destruction of the oceans. Brief sections in graphic-novel format follow a young girl, Ailat, and her father over a couple of decades as the condition of the ocean grows increasingly dire, eventually an orange, slimy mess mostly occupied by jellyfish and leatherback turtles. At the end, Ailat's young daughter doesn't even know what the word fish means. This is juxtaposed against nonfiction chapters with topics including types of fishing equipment and the damage each causes, a history of the destruction of the cod and its consequences, the international politics of the fishing industry and the effects of pollution and global warming.

Book Synopsis

World Without Fish is the uniquely illustrated narrative nonfiction account--for kids ages 8 to 12--of what is happening to the world's oceans and what they can do about it.

Written by master storyteller Mark Kurlansky, World Without Fish connects all the dots--biology, economics, evolution, politics, climate, history, culture, food, and nutrition--in a way that kids can really understand.

The book describes how the fish we most commonly eat, including tuna, salmon, cod, swordfish--even anchovies--could disappear within fifty years, and the domino effect it would have: the oceans teeming with jellyfish and turning pinkish orange from algal blooms, the seabirds disappearing, then reptiles, then mammals.

Explore the back-and-forth dynamic of fishermen--the original environmentalists and scientists--who not that long ago considered fish an endless resource. Learn why fish farming is not the answer and why sustainable fishing is, and how to help return the oceans to their natural ecological balance.

Interwoven with the book is a twelve-page graphic novel to keep young readers engaged. Each beautifully illustrated chapter opener links to the next to form a larger fictional story that perfectly complements the text.

"A wonderfully fast-paced and engaging primer on the key questions surrounding fish and the sea." --Paul Greenberg, author of Four Fish

"A compelling narrative for young people." --The New York Times

"Urgent." --Publishers Weekly

Review Quotes

"In his histories of cod and oysters, Mark Kurlansky described how those species once thrived in the wild, and how they were depleted. [World Without Fish] casts an even wider net and, with the help of superb illustrations and an interwoven graphic novel by Frank Stockton, creates a compelling narrative for young people."
--The New York Times--The New York Times

About the Author

Mark Kurlansky is a former commercial fisherman, journalist, and the New York Times bestselling author of Cod, Salt, The Big Oyster, and dozens of other books of fiction and non-fiction. He's won numerous awards, including the James A. Beard Award, ALA Notable Book Award, and New York Public Library Best Books of the Year Award, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Audubon Magazine, Food & Wine, The Los Angeles Times, and more. He lives with his wife and daughter in New York City and Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Frank Stockton is an artist and illustrator whose work has appeared in Esquire, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.