My Never Ending List

So who exactly is Jacques Cousteau?  I remember watching the TV series as a child, fascinated with all the underwater sea life that Jacques and his crew got to see first-hand ever day. I remember just saying his name as a child, made me feel important.  In Dan Yaccarino’s book, Jacques’ life is laid out in tall pages with bright watercolor illustrations.  Colorful sea creatures, fish and humans fill the pages with contrasting text which are sure to enlighten you as you explore the life of this famous individual.   Each two-page spread has a quote from the famous explorer enclosed inside a bubble which I think adds a humanist feature to his life story.  I learned quite a bit about this famous explorer from his determined personality as he battled some illnesses growing up to inventing his own equipment to fulfill his own desires.  Treading where no other individual had gone before, Jacques opened the world of the ocean to the masses and with this book, we can open the world to what Jacques Cousteau did so many years ago.

There is so much for me to like about this book, which the book jacket just does not convey. Opening this book is like looking at the ocean floor while snorkeling around a coral reef.  The size of the book is tall and oversized which helps show off the wonderful watercolor pictures inside. The contrasting colored text inside is easy to read and has a lot of interesting facts which tells about his life without being bogged down by boring particulars that children don’t really care about.  We learn about his life as a child, his hardships and how he never gave up. We learn about what he saw under the sea, his inventions, and some fun adventures that he had.  At the end of the book we are given a list of important events in his life and a list of resources we could use to find more information about his life.  I highly recommend this book.  I recommend it so much; I am going to buy my own copy of it since this was a library book that I had checked out.