Estuaries are the bays where rivers meet the sea--where fresh and salt water mix and mingle. And oh, what wonders are stirred up there! The salt marshes and mudflats may not seem dramatic at first, but look more deeply and you'll find an amazing variety of plants, animals, and things going on. Some of the organisms are beautiful, some are bizarre, and all of them are superbly adapted to an estuary's unique environment. The Secret Bay uses the poetic voice of the estuary itself to share its secrets. Sidebars provide fun facts on fish, birds, crabs, worms, and other organisms and reveal why estuaries are so teeming with life and so vital to our planet. Kim Ridley and Rebekah Raye's previous book, The Secret Pool, has earned a Kirkus starred review; RIF selection; the John Burroughs Association Riverby Award; a Skipping Stones Honor Award; the Lupine Award; and other accolades. Once again combining the magic of a fairy tale with the wonders of science, The Secret Bay does for estuaries what The Secret Pool does for vernal pools.

AWARDS: *Moonbeam Silver*, *John Burroughs Association Riverby 2016 Award*
Estuaries form where river meets sea and fresh water mixes with salt. Teeming with life, these places of salt marshes, mudflats, and tidal backwaters serve as nursery areas for oceangoing fish, migratory stopovers for shorebirds, and homes for an amazing diversity of snails, bivalves, fish, mammals, horseshoe crabs, fiddler and blue crabs, terrapin turtles, plankton, and many others, all of whom we meet in the pages of this delightful book.