Jacques Cousteau: A Life Under the Sea

Sterling Biographies

by Kathleen Olmstead

Loads of information are packed into each title of this series about world inventors and innovative thinkers, including time lines, sidebars, a glossary, maps, rare photographs, and world-class writing that makes these books accessible and dramatic.

124 pages, Paperback

First published August 5, 2008

About the author

Kathleen Olmstead is the author of several Classic Starts books, including Anne of Avonlea and Moby Dick, as well as Jacques Cousteau: A Life Under the Sea and Matthew Henson: The Quest for the North Pole, both in the Sterling Biographies series.

Reviews

[Hunter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really short and concise overview of Cousteau's life and contributions to marine science. Not overly detailed, good for a younger reader, and informative about some of the sciences. Took maybe an hour to read? Nothing too spectacular but still fun!

[Maria McGrath · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked this book out mainly for the kids, after I found out they didn’t know who Jacques Cousteau was! I have always known about and admired and fantasized about being this great Frenchman, and my love for the ocean and marine life was definitely fostered by him. I didn’t know that much about his background, though, and I was delighted to find tidbits such as, his father-in-law owned a company that made compressed gas (helpful!), and that he worked for the resistance, under the occupiers’ noses, during World War II. Since it’s a book for kids, it treats his secret second family and conflict with Jean-Michel very gingerly, but gives a good explanation, then goes back to the important stuff. It’s heartbreaking and frustrating to see that Jacques Cousteau was warning us about despoiling the ocean as early as 1967, but think how bad things might be if he hadn’t spoken up then, and kept speaking up and trying to make us care. This book is definitely worth a read, and I’d pitch the age group at anywhere from advanced second-grader to high schooler who wants a no-frills rundown of the course of Jacques Cousteau’s life.

[Lucas Anagnostopoulos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was a great book. It told me a lot about how scuba diving came to be in people's lives today and how every thing has changed over time. He won a lot of awards for all of his work that he did. Some examples of work that he did in his life were the invention of the Conshelf 1 which was a living quarters that you could live in under water.the writing had a good flow to it. it went from one piece to the next piece of his life very orderly. It had nice photos of the topics in the book. This book has made me want to learn more about the invention of scuba.

[Joni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! It was exciting, thrilling, entertaining...it taught me so much about this amazing man. He truly was an inspiration. The book is fairly well-written although I found THREE typos. That was upsetting because my students will all read this book...I don't like when authors set a bad example for them. Other than that, this was a great book. I would HIGHLY recommend this stellar series of biographies by the Sterling company.

[Megs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, brisk, definitely age appropriate. Also very dry. I prefer reading this quick overview to a 1,000 page biography, though.

[Holly Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though this is a kid's book I really enjoyed reading about my childhood idol.