[Nonfiction Wednesday] The Otherworld Of The Bathysphere

Myra here.

We are delighted to join the Nonfiction Picture Book meme 2020 hosted by Alyson Beecher @ Kid Lit Frenzy. We would also be linking our nonfiction choices with our reading themes throughout the year, when we can.

Otis And Will Discover The Deep: The Record-Setting Dive Of The Bathysphere

(Amazon | Book Depository)

Written by Barb Rosenstock Illustrated by Katherine Roy
Published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers (2018)
ISBN: 0316393827 (ISBN13: 9780316393829) Literary Award: NCTE Orbis Pictus Award Nominee (2019)
Borrowed via Singapore’s NLB Overdrive. E-Book photos taken by me.

I have always been fascinated by the deep blue sea. I think of myself as a daughter of the moon and the sea, being a March baby – a Pisces. While I can not swim to save my life, there is something about the unexplored otherworldly realm of the bathysphere that calls to me so, as it did Otis and Will, evidently.

Born 20 years apart, it is fascinating how these two men found each other: one, an ingenious designer who actually invented a wood helmet to allow him to discover the deep; the other, a scholar who has spent his entire life studying and exploring and discovering the world around him.

Everything about this nonfiction narrative worked so well: from the individual story line of each man, that led up to their fortuitous meeting, the build-up of the suspense, and the gorgeous artwork of Katherine Roy that is so well-researched and experimented on as she has so gleefully shared in her Illustrator’s Note at the end of the book.

I think more than anything that is what made this book so effective: the absolute thrill of discovery, the excitement of sharing it, the magic of the unknown magnified a hundredfold. Find this book and discover the bathysphere, and all its murky depths, bright colours and well-kept secrets.