62 books like The Brilliant Deep

Written by an author who also happens to be a zoologist, Eugenie Clark’s life story shows incredible devotion to teaching and learning about her beloved sharks and overcoming ridiculous gender obstacles of the time. A true hero!

Bonus: more weird and awesome shark facts can be discovered in the back.

I love the passion in this book.

Native Americans, as a people group, respected the land and protected its resources. Together, like one big family, I can also participate in keeping the land where I live safe and thriving for generations to come. It’s hard work, an uphill climb, but worth every drop of sweat and step.

One look at the cover of this visually stunning, expertly crafted nonfiction picture book sparks the notion that the elusive giant squid has much more to teach us than what meets the eye.

Next, this opening line from the prologue plunges the reader into the squid’s mysterious world so the rest of the book can fulfill the cover’s promise:

"Down, down in the depths of the sunless sea, deep, deep in the cold, cold dark, creatures, strange and fearsome, lurk."

I was hooked from the get-go, and I know Fleming and Rohmann’s innovative pairing of poetic expository text with darkly arresting illustrations—with every word and brushstroke remaining faithful to the facts—will engage any reader lucky enough to pick up this book.

I love a good photo-essay, and this one for ages 10+ examines the declining seahorse population and what one conservationist group has done to try to reverse that trend in The Philippines.

Eye-popping photography draws readers in, inviting them to witness the charming seahorse’s life, habitat, and precarious circumstances; to watch scuba-diving scientists collect crucial research; and to understand efforts to educate children and communities about aquacultural practices that help protect seahorses and their underwater environment.

This adorable story revolves around Shawn, whose love for the majestic shark is so strong that he revels in learning all the things about its life and function in the sea.

When it’s time for his class to draw predator names for a project assignment, Shawn is devastated to wind up with the Leopard Seal instead of the Great White Shark that Stacy drew. Tensions flare between the two when Stacy refuses to trade predators.

The rest of the story unfolds as Shawn slowly realizes he can love sharks and seals, and that a really great thing about humans—like Stacy and him—is that they can figure out how to become friends with each other.

This lyrical nonfiction picture book takes readers on a mesmerizing, sometimes dramatic, and almost deceptively informative exploration of a tide pool’s inner workings at the ocean’s edge.

Fleming’s virtuosic text (complete with significant backmatter) is gorgeously enhanced by Hevron’s layered artwork, and while the book works perfectly as intended for very young children, it’s also a special treat for more skilled readers to read and revisit.

The late, pioneering Dr. Emoto inspires readers to stay open-minded, while he sagely, succinctly, and transparently provides compelling evidence that thoughts and physics are interconnected. 

There are just enough examples (i.e., “before” and “after” images of water molecules exposed to specific thoughts and words) to give a layman an understanding of how and why his results have shaken the status quo. Despite disbelievers who have attempted to undermine his work, the experimental outcomes Emoto documented have been replicated and reproduced in other labs around the world.

Additionally, verification of the “mind-body” connection, and how our thoughts shape reality have been successfully demonstrated by quantum physicists and even neuroscientists (like the late, great Dr. Candace Pert). This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the underpinnings of scientific paradigm shifts.  

That’s right: that Charles Darwin, the author of The Origin of the Species. Seventeen years before that ground-shaking book, he wrote what marine scientists tell me remains the definitive work on the structure of coral reefs. Forget the famous Punch caricature of the gray-haired man trailing a long beard and a chimpanzee and think of the youthful naturalist daring crashing waves to vault to the edge of a South Pacific fringe reef. In places his accounts read like True Adventures for Boys.   

Dr. John E.N. Veron, called Charlie by everyone who knows him, is an Australian coral reef scientist. He is also the person who single-handedly sorted out the names of the corals in the 1980s by emphasizing the study of corals in their natural habitats on reefs. Prior taxonomy, based on dried, cleaned bits of skeletons, had resulted in much confusion given the considerable plasticity of the form of corals growing in different reef habitats. This book is Charlie’s account of his life as a marine scientist, from his earliest exploring of rocky shores near Sydney to his numerous expeditions to reefs around the world over the course of his career. 

His love of the natural world, his curiosity and willingness to take risks, and his dogged determination in solving scientific puzzles stand out. So too do his humor, his down-to-earth Australian-ness, and his loving respect for corals, for reefs, and… show more.

Dr. C. Drew Harvell is an American marine biologist who has worked extensively on the diseases of corals and other marine organisms. She starts this book with an urgent e-mail in December 2013 – sea stars were dying in Monterey, California, and Drew dropped everything to race off to find out what she could.  That is not an exaggeration. In recent years, her life has been like that. While the book deals with serious diseases having huge consequences for various marine organisms, it also reveals the way in which marine biologists can be immersed in their work yet love every minute and find ways to marvel at the mystery that is life on this planet. 

An outstanding teacher as well as researcher, Drew’s ability to captivate, then skillfully mentor students, comes through loud and clear. She captivates us too, making the subject of marine diseases (of organisms most of us… show more.