Sea Monsters

I haven't done a book post in a while.
Scott O'Dell is a fairly famous author. Or at least, I think he is. Island of the Blue Dolphins won a Newbery medal and all. We got through a lot of those medal winning books. I think someone read Island to me when I was very little. It's not one I remember very well but I think it may have been important somehow. I was pretty obsessed with Native Americans for a while and it may have been O'Dells fault. There was also The Kings Fifth which was very good and I would recommend it to anyone who likes adventure and books about hunts for gold.

My favorite Scott O'Dell book, however, is The Black Pearl.
The appeal of this was the gripping danger and adventure, the quirky Catholic characters and

Sea Monsters.

Okay, the manta ray was probably the biggest appeal. The pearl rightfully belongs to the Devilfish and when the main character steals it, disaster strikes. Those terrible superstitious Catholics. They're so silly.
I was glued to the page.

You have to admit, manta rays are probably the coolest thing in the ocean. Knowing that some sea monsters really exist just makes the world a better place. I'm delightfully terrified of sea monsters. I freak myself out when I'm swimming. I would never be able to take a submarine ride, but I would hate myself for passing up the opportunity. But as long as the monsters are on the TV, and I am safely on the other side, I can't get enough of them.

The world is a better place if you believe in the existence of the Loch Ness Monster too. It doesn't have to be proved. As long as there is a possibility that Nessie could capsize your boat at any given moment, the world is a happy place. Or you can just say that Nessie is just some giant eels playing tricks on us and that's almost as good, I suppose, as long as they are extraordinarily giant eels: Seam Monsters.

Jellyfish are really the scariest things in the ocean. I used to think they were just pretty and colorful and whimsical. Then I was drawing them and I looked up a whole bunch of pictures online.
This one is not so scary. I can't post the scary ones or I'll have nightmares. :D
They can get really big. And then they eat really big things. And the looks so harmless and kind of dumb. They just float around looking all squishing and graceful. Then the zap you and you get all tangles in their nasty tentacles... And they EAT you. *shudder*
Who knew?

Jellyfish are sea monsters.

Not all Jellyfish are eight feet across with eighty foot tentacles. Some of them are pretty small and unimpressive. But they are still sea monsters. There are the ones that actually have brains and will chase after their prey. Those are pretty scary too.


Then there is this guy.
I was almost disappointed when they finally found a live one. It made them a little less scary. The more you know about a creature the less frightening it is( with the exception of the Manta Ray, of course, because he's my favorite).

A giant squid's eye balls are about the size of a human head.

Imagine looking it in the eye! I have to confess that I read Twenty-thousand Leagues Under the Sea just for the fight with the giant squid.



We used to have those Child Craft Encyclopedia things when I was little. In the back of one of them there was a story about the Kraken. There was a fantastically scary picture of this monstrous octopus-ish thing cracking a ship in half. Mine was much better than this one. All the sailors were screaming and jumping overboard or trying in vain to kill the thing. And the Kraken itself looked wicked enough to be enjoying itself.

It was GLORIOUS. I was terrified of it.

I always found it and marked that page somehow so I wouldn't open to it by accident. It was not the sort of picture I wanted to sneak up on me. When I was done looking at all the pleasant pictures, I would open to it very slowly so it wouldn't jump out at me. I would peek at it for about thirty seconds and then close the book very quickly before my imagination ran away and left me too petrified to move. It was the best part of the book. I have to admit, I'm glad the Kraken doesn't really exist. I love it in a story, but I prefer giant squid in real life. They don't seem as malicious.

I've rambled far off my intended subject, but I've one more sea monster to mention... at least...
The Narwhal is one of the more ridiculous looking creatures in the ocean.
It almost doesn't count as a monster because it's so funny looking. And I guess it doesn't actually use it's tusk for killing things. That's kind of lame. But it's still monster-ish.

After all, it's a whale with a seven foot tusk sticking out of it's face!

There are a whole bunch more monsters in the deepest parts of the sea. But it's bed time and I will give myself bad dreams if I post anymore pictures. (All of these came from Wikipedia, by the way)
The Black Pearl was about pearl divers, obviously. Even without the Devilfish, it was a pretty good book.

One of those stories that is written so well that images from it will stay with you forever.