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The Fantastic Undersea Life Of Jacques Cousteau (2009)

by Dan Yaccarino(Favorite Author)

4.07 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0375855734 (ISBN13: 9780375855733)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Knopf Books for Young Readers

review 1: A good biography not only informs readers but inspires them to dream big and work hard to achieve their dreams. Dan Yaccarino’s picture book biography of Jacques Cousteau uses simple prose and colorful pictures to convey to young readers the passion and accomplishments of the 20th century’s eminent oceanographer. It chronicles Cousteau’s boyhood in France, where doctors told him that swimming would help him overcome injury and weakness. As he grew he became more and more fascinated by the sea and all he could discover within it. Cousteau found the diving equipment of his day to be woefully inadequate, so he invented his own diving lung. Later he built submersibles to allow him to dive ever deeper. He created new lights and cameras so that he could capture what ... morehe saw beneath the waves and share it with the world. And the world was enthralled by his documentaries. For fifty years he brought the murky depths into movie theaters, living rooms, and school classrooms. Though most elementary-aged children today have probably never seen a documentary narrated in Cousteau’s lilting French accent, modern oceanographers owe him everything. Later in life, Jacques Cousteau became an ardent environmentalist, campaigning against overfishing and pollution. Yaccarino does a good job documenting this without allowing his biography to become too preachy. Each page has a quote from Cousteau himself, giving this simple text a sense of authenticity.A second or third grader would have no trouble getting through this book on her own, but teachers could also use it as a read-aloud for younger students. It is short and the language and pictures are simple and engaging. Even better, teachers should have no trouble dredging up a Jacques Cousteau documentary to watch with their classes afterward. Science and literature together? You can satisfy all your Common Core goals before lunch! Here is a modern scientist whose work is easy to understand and very appealing to children. After reading Yaccarino’s account, who would not want to grow up to be the next Jacques Cousteau? And, this is not a pie-in-the-sky dream. The oceans are still full of mysterious and unexplored places, just waiting for the next generation of explorers, of only we inspire them to go.
review 2: Have you ever wondered who created the Aqua-Lung or even underwater lab facilities? Well, a man by the name of Jacques Cousteau created these wonderful things that he had fantasized about and made them come true. When Jacques was a little boy, he was diagnosed with an illness that had made him weak. The doctors suggested that Jacques should try strengthening his body by swimming. Jacques decided to give it a try, and from that point on, Jacques fell in love with the sea. He had devoted his whole life to the sea, in which he brought underwater entertain to the people and created a society to help stop water pollution.When I read this book on the kindle device, I did not like it. There were a lot of pages that were plain white with black texts. Even the pictures on the kindle device were moderately small and somewhat out of order to me. However, when I looked at the actual text in a picture book, I completely fell in love with the book. The illustrations in the book were so breathtaking and vivid; I could not believe my eyes! The message that the book sent me was to never give up on something that you love. The time to achieve your goal may be long but it is worth waiting for. This book would be great to use for a science lesson. I probably teach a lesson about the different types of water ecosystems. Another lesson would be to teach the students about how water pollution affects us and the plant. For the older grades, the students could write a biography on Jacques Cousteau. For the younger grades, the students could write about what they think it would be like to live underwater and draw a picture of their underwater house.Lexile: 840Guided Reading Level: T Grade Level: I could not find but I would say 3-5Independent Reading: I could not find but I would say end of third gradeAppropriate Read Aloud: third grade and up less

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