Me, the Halibut.

I've finally decided what I want to be when I grow up. A halibut. Not because I want to end up on a restaurant table, but because of an interesting habit the adult halibut has.

It spends most of its adult life lying on the ocean floor, just looking around. What a life.

And it has an unusual physical attribute that lets it do this safely. A young halibut, like most fish, has an eye on each side of its body. But over the course of its life, one eye MIGRATES. Right over the top of its head.

To repeat, the eye moves to a new location on its body. Imagine what has to happen inside the fish's body to permit this.

The halibut can then lie on its side with both eyes facing up and out, watching for predators, which it probably doesn't have too many of, since it, you know, lies on the ocean floor all day without moving.

I learned this nifty fact in a book called Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World. It's by Caldecott Award-winner Steve Jenkins and it explains the various types of eye structures and super-vision abilities animals have...and their weaknesses. For example, a bullfrog will starve to death if a stationary fly sits in front of him, but if the fly moves...dinner is served.

Eye to Eye is one of about two dozen books I'm reviewing for a bibliography of science books for kids. These books will help me develop an understanding not only of science topics, but of great resources for a classroom library.

Assuming I get around to developing one. After I spend all day lying on the floor, looking around.