Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature's Secrets to Longevity

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After her best friend dies in a drowning accident, Suzy is convinced that the true cause of the tragedy must have been a rare jellyfish sting--things don't just happen for no reason. Retreating into a silent world of imagination, she crafts a plan to prove her theory--even if it means traveling the globe, alone. Suzy's achingly heartfelt journey explores life, death, the astonishing wonder of the universe...and the potential for love and hope right next door. This book needed to go through another round of editing as there were several easily identifiable grammatical errors that really should have been fixed before publication. It actually made me wonder if this was self-published.

Jellyfish are, like the mythical Medusa, both beautiful and potentially dangerous. Found from pole to tropic, these mesmeric creatures form an important part of the sea's plankton and vary in size from the gigantic to the minute. Perceived as alien creatures and seen as best avoided, jellyfish nevertheless have the power to fascinate: with the sheer beauty of their translucent bells and long, trailing tentacles; with a mouth that doubles as an anus; and without a head or brain. On a Sunday evening a couple of weeks ago I met three friends for drinks and tapas at a favorite wine bar in town. We're writers, the three of us, one with nearly two dozen novels published—she and I are launching our next releases together in September, her 19th, my 2nd. Another will celebrate her debut, a literary fiction psychological thriller, in early 2018. And the third friend is in the agent query trenches with a novel that could be adult literary fiction or YA, depending on the spin and the audience. Knowing what a crazy-gifted writer she is, we offered our support and wisdom, assuring her it was a matter of time before the right agent fell in love with her story. Best Books 2015, Middle Grade: The Thing About Jellyfish". Best Books 2015. School Library Journal . Retrieved 10 June 2018. The taste of the jellyfish was so subtle as to be almost nothing at all. I ate some more. It was a tasty, light, savory salad. In spite of all my anxiety about buying, soaking, preparing, and then eating it, jellyfish was completely unremarkable. One issue I did have with this book was the way the dialogue was written. There was seemingly no variation, besides Suzy's internal dialogue, in the way everyone spoke. Sure, they could be mean, they could be kind, they could be just giving a report, but it all felt like the same person was talking each time. The dialogue was also handled in a sort of "after school special" kind of way. Don't get me wrong, "Sesame Street" is great, but not if a twelve-year-old boy is talking to a girl his age in that manner, the same way her parent or her teacher or her older brother would talk to her.

How does the immortal jellyfish live forever?

And once I did, the very next day at the literary fiction writer-friend's bookstore she owns with her poet-husband, I could not put it down.

My other issues with Spineless is the jump in narrative. I felt that the narrative was quite choppy and did not flow well at all. At one moment she was recalling a vacation with her family and the next she was getting roasted by one of the jellyfish scientists who didn't like her. Also, some concepts seemed quite repetitive (why bring up Medusa so MUCH!) and Jellyfish are the most efficient swimmers in the world! The chapter that focuses on this, "Robojelly", highlights some particularly interesting research on the mechanics of jellyfish swimming and robotic jellyfish. Kelly, Jacqueline (2015-10-09). " 'The Thing About Jellyfish,' by Ali Benjamin". The New York Times . Retrieved 2016-03-09.

Where are immortal jellyfish found?

I wish the memoir part that was weaved in had a little more "life" to it. I found myself not giving a whit about Berwald herself or really caring that much about why she, herself, in particular wanted to study jellyfish. The hydrozoan Turritopsis dohrnii, an animal about 4.5 millimetres wide and tall (likely making it smaller than the nail on your little finger), can actually reverse its life cycle. It has been dubbed the immortal jellyfish.

Positives: Spineless is written in a very approachable manner and is easy to understand. Part science/part memoir, a person who does not normally read science topics or who knows nothing about jellyfish will find the writing easy to understand and quite fascinating at times. If people were silent, they could hear the noise of their own lives better. If people were silent, it would make what they did say, whenever they chose to say it, more important. If people were silent, they could read one another's signals, the way underwater creatures flash lights at one another, or turn their skin different colors." Science Plays Lead Role In New Book Aimed At Young Adults". WBUR. 28 September 2015 . Retrieved 10 June 2018. Most of all, I don’t understand why small talk is considered more polite than not-talking. It’s like when people applaud after a performance. Have you ever heard someone not clap after a performance? People clap every time, no matter whether it was good or bad. They even applaud after the Eugene Field band plays its annual concert, and that’s really saying something. So wouldn’t it be easier and take less time and effort to just not clap? Because it would mean the same thing, which is nothing at all.The Thing About Jellyfish is a 2015 children's novel written by Ali Benjamin, her fiction debut. [1] Plot summary [ edit ] Looking for that book that has solid parents? This is it. They aren't perfect but they clearly try and they love Suzy even in divorce. Her brother and his boyfriend are also there for Suzy. While I would have loved to have experienced their conversations with Suzy at the end I did love how they were portrayed so that kids can see... family is there for you. You feel alone, but you aren't!! I had some trouble with this book. The mental health was all over the place. The split narrative while wonderful in the past parts was boring and slow in the present. We were told way, way too much in the present (used in adult contemporary books a lot) instead of shown (which is better for middle grade readers).