Journey under the Arctic

March 15, 2020
Grades 4-6 Fabien Cousteau, grandson to the famous explorer, and his junior helpers, Rocco and Olivia, are diving back into a new adventure, this time to the bottom of the Arctic Circle in search of an elusive species of octopus. Information and exposition are nonstop along their journey, as Fabien and his crew inform the kids on everything they're witnessing, from how to build an Inuit snow house?the explorers come upon a special camp where [Inuit] families are recreating their old way of life ?to facts about the various wildlife native to the region. Peppered throughout the text is important commentary on climate change, as this region is changing rapidly as a result. Long lines of text are broken up by brief action sequences, like a shark scare or the taking of evasive maneuvers to avoid a whale. Illustrations are bold and colorful with sharp outlines helping to keep the focus on the action, animals, and discoveries. A welcome addition to the growing number of nonfiction, science-focused graphic novels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

June 26, 2020

Gr 5-7-Fabien Cousteau, grandson of Jacques-Yves, crafts a story in which he leads a fictional crew of researchers including two enthusiastic young "Junior Expeditioners" into the Chukchi Sea and then beneath it in a submersible-meeting a teeming variety of local wildlife from whales and polar bears to eerie ice worms. In search of the dumbo octopus (variously described as both "rare" and "common"), Fabian and the team come across a camp where elder Inuits are teaching young people the old ways: living in igloos, relying on dog sleds, and hunting fish. The decision to depict Inuit people not as modern but as rooted in the past falls flat, as does a scene where an Inuit elder recalls a dream about the octopus, which relies heavily on antiquated stereotypes of Indigneous people. Elsewhere, the pejorative term Eskimo is used without explanation or context. The promise of a rousing flashback at the outset to a 1775 encounter with a derelict ship crewed by frozen mummies is never quite fulfilled. The ensuing modern expedition struggles to maintain headway through heavy waves of informational slush that often threaten to overwhelm the smiling, muffled figures that St. Pierre shoehorns in static poses into his small, garishly colored panels. Amid all the mini-lectures, readers will have to learn elsewhere what a "water column" is, and that the scientific name for walrus, Odobenus rosmarus, translates as "tooth walking sea horse," not just "tooth walker." Moreover, in one picture, labels for "port" and "starboard" are confusingly placed on their opposite sides, and in another image the tentacles of a lion's mane jellyfish are green while the text describes them as red and yellow. VERDICT A huge amount of information is provided about rarely visited habitats, but it is presented in such a didactic, stereotypical, and slapdash way that middle grade readers are likely to come away confused and/or offended.-John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York

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