

Bob the Sponge, a natural sea sponge with sunglasses, was the "host" of the book.

The book was intended for children and taught about the behaviors of different sea creatures. While Stephen Hillenburg worked as a teacher of marine science at the Ocean Institute in California, he created an educational book called The Intertidal Zone. SpongeBob with his real-life counterpart, as seen in the book Underwater Friends. In this promo art, he is shown with his scientific classification. SpongeBob is a poriferan, better known as a sea sponge. SpongeBob appears in some form in every episode of the series, beginning with the series' debut episode, " Help Wanted." He is voiced by Tom Kenny, who is married to Karen Plankton's voice actress, Jill Talley. In The SpongeBob Musical, SpongeBob's exact species of sea sponge is identified: Aplysina fistularis, a yellow sea sponge that is commonly found in open waters. Like real sea sponges, SpongeBob has the ability to filter-feed (as shown in " I Had an Accident") and reproduce by budding (in " Pressure"). SpongeBob is very good-natured and loves to hang out with his best friend, Patrick. Unfortunately, he tenses up whenever he has to drive a boatmobile, and he drives recklessly. Puff's Boating School, and his greatest dream in life is to receive his boating license. He works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab, a job in which he is exceptionally skilled at and enjoys thoroughly.

SpongeBob is a childish, joyful, and clumsy sea sponge who lives in a pineapple with his pet snail Gary in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. Stephen Hillenburg based SpongeBob on Bob the Sponge, a character he had created for his educational book The Intertidal Zone in the late 1980s. He was designed by show creator and former marine biologist, the late Stephen Hillenburg. Robert "SpongeBob" SquarePants (born J) is the titular main protagonist of the animated series of the same name.
