Secrets of the Sea: The Story of Jeanne Power, Revolutionary Marine Scientist, written by Evan Griffith and Joanie Stone, reviewed by Klaudia Janek

Summary:  This picture book looks like the sea when you first open it. Jeanne Power moved to Italy from France when she got married. She went from being a seamstress to wanting to do something else.  She had moved to Sicily because her husband was a merchant who needed to be by a port.  She decided to become a naturalist and taught herself about natural history. She started with land animals and then was intrigued by the sea.  There was not a lot of research available, so she decided to be the one to provide the research.  She started to think about how she could observe the animals in the ocean.  She invented the concept of an aquarium and she had local fishermen give her creatures from the sea that seemed unusual.   She became intrigued by paper nautiluses and focused her study on discovering if the outer shell was grown or found. She worked hard to be included in science academies.  Usually being the first woman to join and present her research.  She encountered some resistance and some male scientists even tried to steal her research.  But she had everything documented and wrote lots of letters defending herself, so she is still given credit for her work today.

Straight Talk for Librarians:  This is a beautiful non-fiction picture book about a female scientist. The illustrations retain a sea like quality and fit the time period of the Victorian era. It is very informative and students will learn about a female scientist and about paper nautiluses.  They will also learn about the invention of the aquarium. Lots of notes are found at the end about the topic and also about historical research.  This is a great addition to any elementary library.  I would also say that high school science teachers could have this book in their classroom for students to quickly read. This particular book was tested on a 9 year old and she said “It was really good!  I liked learning about paper nautilusus.”  A ringing endorsement.