When Rebecca Pratt proposed a collaboration, explaining that underwater life is to coastal New Zealand kids what forest life is to us—something many of them don’t encounter very often—I agreed right away.

Bec is the author and engine behind the book project about marine shelf life near Taranaki, New Zealand. She provided a ton of photos and descriptions of what people can experience while scuba diving. She is incredibly enthusiastic about sharing the beauty of shelf species with kids, and to reach as many children as possible, she published “Shelf Life” in both English and Māori, under the title “Paenga Ora”.

I am not a kid, but I enjoyed it leaning so much about shelf life while working on the illustrations!