Seymour Simon

I have to wonder about Simon’s choice of title: Is it actually possible to have mysteries that aren’t “strange”? Perhaps the “strangeness” really lies in the explanations that people give for these unusual events or phenomenon. The paranormal, aliens, and even sea monsters are invoked. (Superstition and irrationality appear to be the default mental settings for humans).

Now to the book itself: Simon presents nine “mysteries” in total. Six of them, which rely on newspaper and show more magazine reports, concern phenomena which have convincing scientific explanations, even if some of the nitty-gritty details haven’t been fully settled. These include—among others—

(1) stories of storms in which fish and frogs have rained down from the sky, sometimes miles away from the nearest body of water These strange occurrences are attributed to the strong winds from storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes that lift animals out of their natural habitats;

(2) accounts of unusual nighttime lights, which change size and colour and seem to be able to move While not all can be explained, those occurring near swamps may be related to the methane gas emitted as plant matter decays;

(3) reports about about a massive explosion that occurred in Siberia in 1908 Most scientists agree this was due to a comet’s entering, slowing, and exploding within Earth’s atmosphere; and

(4) a discussion of the experiences of barefooted fire walkers who step on yards of hot coals without receiving burns This one is admittedly harder to explain, but some scientists say wood coals are poor conductors of heat, and others allude to the “Leidenfrost effect”, which occurs when a cold moist object (a foot) touches a hot dry one (a coal), and a steam barrier is created between the objects. Steam is a poor conductor of heat.

I found the three historical mysteries more interesting to read than those related to natural phenomena. The Oak Island treasure, the Mary Celeste “ghost ship”, and the (supposedly Mayan) crystal skull have morphed into tall tales over time. Simon writes them up as longer, coherent narratives, with a plots, casts of characters, and even conflict(s) of a sort. The edition I read, with a copyright of 1997, is now quite dated, and aside from the story of the crystal skull, the “mysteries” remain unsolved. While there is now a better theory about why an undamaged ship was found floating crew-less with its valuable cargo still intact, I’m not sure anyone really believes treasure will ever be found at the bottom of a deep, centuries-old shaft on Oak Island off the coast of Nova Scotia. (A British Columbian Company, Ideon Technologies, and the History Channel are apparently aiming to find out for sure by the end off 2022) The quartz skull is now known to be a hoax; there’s evidence that the adventurer, whose daughter apparently found it, actually purchased the skull in London in 1943.

As mentioned, this edition of Simon’s work is now pretty dated and not all of his explanations are likely to be accessible to the intended readership. Nevertheless, the book is still likely to entertain readers aged ten and up. show less

I really enjoyed this book!. I chose another Seymour Simon book just because I really enjoy his style. One of the reasons I like this book is for the way it is written. Simon makes coral reefs relevant and relatable to the reader with his words. For example, when he is describing life inside of a coral reef, he compares it to a city with many types of citizens, something a reader can relate to even if they have never seen a coral reef. He then details the many citizens of the reef and their show more jobs inside of it. Another thing i like about this book is the pictures. The pictures are very detailed and represent the story well. For example, when Simon is describing the 3 types of reefs, he pictures each one next o the description, giving th reader an accurate visual. The purpose of this book is to inform about coral reefs and how they develop and sustain life. show less

This is a great visual book that has a consistent theme. Every page is black with breathtaking photos of lunar explorations. It is not as easy to pick out information as other non-fiction texts as all the information is written out in paragraph form, lacking text boxes, subheadings and other text features, but for the interested student, they will learn a lot. Because of the colors and photos, it is a very immersive experience and I think would really allow students to imagine space travel. show more I would like to see it updated with information from more recent discoveries as the first edition of this book was written almost 30 years ago, and the most recent update was 14 years ago. show less

There are different reasons as to why I enjoyed this book, and why I thought it could have been better. I enjoyed it because I did find a lot of the facts fascinating: learning that fish, squids, and octopuses have eyes that are similar to human eyes, they have adjustable lenses that focuses on sharp images, etc. It is a very interesting and in-depth look at how these underwater animals really do survive, something that I personally have not put much thought into. I thought the writing was show more clear and somewhat easy to read. The vocabulary is a little more challenging than I anticipated, especially with all of the chemistry information. However, I appreciated the illustrations. When browsing through the book before reading, I thought to myself that this would be a good children's book because it has a lot of illustrations. It is written like a chapter book, but presented almost like a children's book. It has a ton of pictures and the pages are bigger than novels. However, this is where my negative feelings come in. Despite finding all of the information fascinating, I got bored with the book. I love underwater animals and learning about them but I felt like I was reading a text book. Considering that this is supposed to be a book for children, I felt that they the author could have somewhat wrote it in a tone that was more fun to motivate readers to continue to read. Instead, sentence after sentence was just information being stated. Overall, the main idea of the book is to inform readers on how ocean animals such as dolphins and seaweed work with one another to survive and how our actions on shore, such as oil spills, effect their way of life. I do recommend this book for readers who are truly fascinated with ocean animal life, or if they need information for a research, however it is a book that I would recommend to older readers. show less