The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau
written and illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
School Library Journal
K-Gr 4. Yaccarino deftly provides information about important events in
Cousteau’s life while conveying the excitement and wonder that the ocean
explorer experienced. Readers learn about his tinkering that resulted in
inventions such as the Aqua-Lung and submersibles that expanded the range of
undersea exploration and research. Then Cousteau shared his discoveries
through films, books, and television, encouraging others to value and protect the
oceans from environmental degradation. Effective layout and page design plus
colorful gouache illustrations result in a striking visual presentation for smallgroup sharing or individual viewing. Brief quotations from Cousteau appear in
insets on some pages; there is no documentation of Yaccarino’s own research.
Jennifer Berne’s Manfish (Chronicle, 2008) uses more poetic language and
features softer, more aquatic colors in the illustrations. Even libraries with that
biography will want to add Yaccarino’s book to the shelves. Kathy Piehl,
Minnesota State University, Mankato Copyright 2009 Reed Business
Information.
Booklist
Gr. K-3. Yaccarino is best known for his whimsical animal characters, including
some, such as Oswald the octopus, who now star in their own television series.
Here he switches focus to a real-world, human hero: famed oceanographer
Jacques Cousteau. The brief, evenly paced text, which includes a few direct
quotes, describes Cousteau’s lifelong fascination with the sea, filmmaking, and
invention, beginning with depictions of the scientist as a young boy, tinkering
with cameras and swimming in the ocean to recover from chronic illness.
Rendered in gouache and airbrush, the playful illustrations evoke popular midtwentieth-century patterns and shades—a fitting reference to Cousteau’s
professional heyday. A few scenes seem to emphasize design over realistic
depictions: undersea vessels, in particular, are indistinct shapes, and Cousteau
himself often appears as a stylized figure. The fanciful, textured images give a
sense of the sea’s infinite swirl of life, though, and they are further grounded by
the solid, straightforward words. Pair this energetic, inspiring biography with
Jennifer Berne’s Manfish (2008), another picture-book view of Cousteau’s life
and work.— Gillian Engberg
The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Gr. 2-4. Following on the damp heels of Berne’s Manfish: The Story of Jacques
Cousteau (BCCB 7/08) is this new picture-book biography of the great marine
explorer and environmental champion. Yaccarino begins with Cousteau’s youth,
explaining his taste for tinkering and early love of the water, and then follows
those threads through his career. This isn’t so much an overview of his life
(there’s no mention of his wartime experiences, for instance) as a chronicle of his
explorations, innovation, and work as a marine ambassador; enumeration of his
inventions, such as the Aqualung, the Diving Saucer, and the Sea Flea, and
entertaining tidbits about various dives (“A big grouper adopted the crew while
they were filming”) add depth to the history. Yaccarino’s simple, straightforward
text capably condenses the important aspects of Cousteau’s life and effectively
conveys the man’s love of the oceans and commitment to sharing it; quotes from
Cousteau appear in colored medallions and offer a horse’s mouth (seahorse’s
mouth?) counterpoint to the third-person narration. The gouache illustrations
ingeniously employ an airbrush for much of their paint application, resulting in
soft grainy textures with gradations ranging from the crisp to the gentle. The
sensibility is strongly graphic and the faces generally rather stylized, so the
images are a little low on emotional connection, but they’re dramatic, with the
varied layouts and capable compositions balancing the teeming marine life and
the strong colors. This would be a useful companion to Cousteau’s film and
television work, or it could provide a marine dimension to a unit on explorers. A
brief timeline of important events in Cousteau’s life is appended; the bound book
will include source notes. DS
Horn Book
Primary.
As sleek as a seal, Yaccarino’s biography of “the world’s ambassador of the
oceans” uses sinuous shapes and a retro fifties palette to evoke the beauty of
Cousteau’s watery domain. With spot quotations from the man himself, the
text succinctly numbers Cousteau’s inventions (the Aqua-Lung) and
achievements (The Silent World was “the first full-length, full-color
underwater film ever made”), while the gouache and airbrush paintings go far
to convey the allure of the deep. A full-page picture illustrating Cousteau’s use
of underwater lighting shows a blue seahorse caught in the beams of three
lights, the whole scene awash with deep reds; a double-page, blue-toned spread
of the Antarctic waters teems with marine life...and one tiny camera-wielding
scuba diver almost nose-to-nose with a humpback whale. Lots of variety in
picture size and page layout keeps the book dynamic; a timeline and reading
list provide further information. r.s.