Published by Roaring Brook Press

Summary:  Rachel Carson loved nature from the time she was a child.  She spent a lot of time outside, looking and listening to the wonders around her.  Although she grew up far from the ocean, she loved to read about it and imagined what it would be like.  She also enjoyed writing, and planned to study it in college. But after seeing tiny sea creatures through a microscope, she changed her major to biology.  After graduation, she combined her two interests, writing popular books about the ocean. Her most famous work, though, was Silent Spring, based on her research on the effects of pesticides on the environment.  Although not everyone agreed with her conclusions, enough people were concerned that real changes occurred as a result, including the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the first Earth Day.  Includes author’s note, notes, and bibliography. 40 pages; grades K-4.

Pros:  A charming introduction to Rachel Carson’s life, emphasizing her lifelong love of nature, especially the ocean, and illustrated with cartoon-style illustrations.

Cons:  The notes gave a lot of interesting information about Carson’s life, but are written in a small, cramped font, and are likely to be overlooked by young readers.

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Published by Henry Holt and Co.

Summary:  Katherine Johnson became more widely known with the book and movie Hidden Figures.  This picture book biography covers her life from her childhood in West Virginia through her role in helping to rescue the Apollo 13 crew.  In between, she graduated college at age 18, became a teacher, then moved on to NASA, beginning her career as a “computer”. Her brilliance in math earned her promotions, allowing her to work on Project Mercury, where astronaut John Glenn requested her calculations before flying.  She then moved on to calculating the flight paths for the Apollo missions, which is how she came to be called on when Apollo 13 was in trouble. Her assignment was to calculate a flight path that would bring the astronauts home with the little fuel they had left. She succeeded; the final page shows her gazing into space, a path of calculations connecting her to the moon, with the sentence, “She was now a star herself.”  Includes additional biographical information and sources. 40 pages; grades 1-5.

Pros:  A good overview of Katherine’s life through 1970, with additional information in the back matter.  Both the text and the illustrations emphasize the importance of math in Katherine’s life and work.

Cons:  A timeline would have been useful.

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Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Summary:  Otis Barton loved the ocean from childhood, and dreamed of inventing a contraption that would allow him to explore deep water.  Will Beebe was a scientist who studied the natural world and became enamored of undersea life on a diving trip off the coast of the Galapagos Islands.  The two men decided to build the Bathysphere, a 5,000-pound, four-and-a-half foot enclosure that would descend to the depths and allow them to see what was there.  On May 27, 1930, they made their first trip, aware of the dangers of leaks, explosions, and the wrong amount of oxygen. They succeeded, though, reaching a depth of 800 feet, and being the first to see what the ocean looked like at those depths.  Includes a lengthy author’s note with photos and additional information about both men and the Bathysphere, as well as additional sources. 48 pages; grades K-5.

Pros:  The story is simple and straightforward, yet the author’s note adds enough information to make it a good read for fourth and fifth graders.  The rich illustrations bring the undersea world to life, including a foldout page of Otis and Will’s view at 800 feet.

Cons:  Including a date or two in the main story would have helped place it in historical context.  I had to turn to the author’s note to figure out when it was happening.

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Published by Chronicle Books

Summary:  Growing up near Kennedy Space Center, the son of a NASA engineer, Ken Nedimyer was surrounded by science.  Ken loved science, too, but he was more interested in the ocean, enjoying TV shows featuring Jacques Cousteau and exploring the coral reefs off the Florida Keys. As he got older, though, Ken was saddened to see the coral reefs dying.  As an adult, he owned a live rock farm, a business where he sold rocks covered with invertebrates like mollusks and sponges to keep saltwater aquariums healthy. When he found coral growing on his rocks, he experimented with gluing them onto undersea rocks where the coral reefs used to be.  The success of this experiment led to a group called the Coral Restoration Foundation that has restored some of the reefs in the Keys and is now spreading its message around the world. Includes additional resources, vocabulary, and some ways kids can help. 48 pages; grades 1-4.

Pros:  An inspiring story of one person making a big difference in the world, illustrated with beautiful pastels that capture the subtle colors of the coral reefs.

Cons:  Saving the coral reef seemed to be no more difficult than a simple craft project.

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