Claire A. Nivola

I think this book hits an awkward spot in terms of recommending it to kids. It doesn't have enough information to satisfy older readers, but the vocabulary and sentence structures would be really challenging for a younger reader. I suppose I'd put it in the 3rd to 5th grade range.

The story is a very basic outline of the life of oceanographer Sylvia Earle, covering briefly her childhood on a farm, her family's move to Florida near the ocean, her love of exploring ocean life, and some of her professional feats (mostly how deep she dove and how long she stayed underwater).

There's a lot more information in the Author's Note that follows the text. I wish more of it had been integrated into the story. There's a sad message in it, too, about how poorly humans treat the oceans: "...we have dumped lethal nuclear waste, industrial waste, pollutants from underwater mining, and just plain garbage... Are we thinking the sea is vast and deep enough to take all this and more?"

The real treat of this short biography is the art. Each page charmingly conveys the vastness of the oceans and the variety of life found there, as well as Earle's immersion (literally!) in her studies.… (mer)