> Skip to content
  • Published: 2 February 2021
  • ISBN: 9780241435533
  • Imprint: Ladybird
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 80
  • RRP: $55.00

Water World



The stunning new book from illustrator Ben Rothery, author of Hidden Planet and Sensational Butterflies.

Life on Earth is shaped by water, and only survives here because of it, but our ocean ecosystems are at the epicentre of global warming.

This enormous blue wilderness contains somewhere between half and three quarters of all life on Earth, including the biggest and most numerous creatures to ever live. But more than 90 per cent of Earth's warming since 1950 occurred in oceans, despite their vast capacity to absorb heat and CO2.

Framed by the need to protect our fragile oceans, Water World is natural-history illustrator Ben Rothery's rich exploration of the creatures from the coastal and offshore waters of the world - from penguins, seagulls, polar bears and seahorses, to plankton, sharks and deep-sea beings. Discover the longest migration and the loudest animal on Earth, and learn how our own actions affect the ocean, its inhabitants and our whole planet.

  • Published: 2 February 2021
  • ISBN: 9780241435533
  • Imprint: Ladybird
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 80
  • RRP: $55.00

About the author

Ben Rothery

Ben Rothery is a detail-obsessed illustrator from Norwich, via Cape Town. He combines multiple processes to create intricate and delicate illustrations and repeating patterns, full of fine detail and vibrant colour.

Much of Ben's work is inspired or informed by his love of nature - he grew up wanting variously to be a shark, dinosaur or David Attenborough crossed with Indiana Jones, but settled upon illustration as a compromise that allowed him to bring those fantasies to life on paper. In 2021 he won the prestigious Silver Pencil Award for Hidden Planet, and his work is published throughout the world.

Ben works from a small but perfectly formed studio in London, which he shares with an unnecessarily large collection of very sharp pencils.

Also by Ben Rothery

See all

Praise for Water World

This book is a thing of rare beauty

David Walliams (on Hidden Planet)