Manfish

Description

Manfish

A Story of Jacques Cousteau

by Jennifer Berne, illustrated by Éric Puybaret

(Chronicle)

No one could have imagined the world revealed by Jacques Cousteau throughout the twentieth century. It seems he was a Manfish. In this picture book biography, we learn about his inspiration and legacy, such as maintained by The Cousteau Society.

An early fascination with water inspired dreams of ‘flying through water‘. Thereafter, he researched and created as a child, including a ‘crane that was as tall as he was, and actually worked‘. What’s more, he was fascinated by cinema, so hsaved his money to buy his own movie camera and filmed everyone and everything about him. It would appear that even in his youth, Jacques Cousteau was the ‘the star, the director, the writer. And usually the cameraman’.

However, the French Navy and snorkelling introduced him to a whole new world. This led him to build a special case to film his discoveries! However, Jacques Cousteau wanted more, so designed rubber suits ‘to keep warm‘ alongside ‘flippers- to kick better’. Then he began to plan how he might ‘take more air with him, enough air to explore the mysterious depths and vast expanses of the ocean’. Herein, he invented the ‘aqualung’ 

Jennifer Berne of On a Beam of Light, describes Jacques Cousteau’s motivations, effort, discoveries and explorations. Therefore, we travel aboard the Calypso, alongside Philippe and Didi, his lifelong companions. What’s more, we realise how he tied up his love of the ocean and movies so that he became a trailblazing naturalist.

Éric Puyubaret’s illustrations are clean, distinct and expressive. They help us travel alongside Jennifer Berne’s assured biography. Bookwagon loves Manfish and recommends this title for sharing, discussion, keeping and gifting.