I loved this book, it was a great book to read out loud to kids. I loved the exploration of the shipwreck and the Kobee Manatee series is always a big hit with kids.

The book shows Kobee and his friends' adventure at the sea-bed. But things didn't go as planned, a column fell on Kobee's tail. His friends cannot help him, so other bigger fish came to his aid.

Things I liked about book
1) art work
2) fish general information

Things that I disliked
1) Text and images were not aligned properly
2) Climax text was missing, I got to know about climax from image only

This is the perfect book for any young budding oceanographer...or any kid who loves the aquarium! Kobee Manatee makes friends wherever he goes, and in this installment that is on a trip to a sunken shipwreck! Along the way, we learn all about the sea animals native to the area around Puerto Rico. The illustrations were stunningly colorful, and I loved the added "fun facts" boxes that talked about every fish pictured. Fun and very informative!

Thank you to Net Galley and Thompson Mill Press for an e-ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review. I read it to my grandkids...ranging from 4-9. We all really enjoyed it. I love manatees, and this worked for the different ages. The little one loved the pictures and stories...the oldest loved the facts.

This was quite a fun little book with some lovely images and I enjoyed the story. This is the second book that I have read in the Kobee Manatee series and I preferred this to the previous book I had read - 4 stars from me.

A manatee and his buds swim off to play in a shipwreck, meeting all kinds of sea creatures along the way. The manatee wears a vest and beret, the seahorse has a huge red bouffant. While exploring the wreck, the manatee gets trapped inside and needs to be rescued. Many try to help, but it takes size to save the day this time.
Each page had fun facts, with the first one the most interesting: the wreck they explore, despite being over 100 years old, was made of steel and had electricity! The sawfish is a ray, even though it looks like a shark, so even adults can learn stuff here.
As you might expect, blue is the predominant color. Having never been in water further down than a couple of feet—except for the ride at Disneyland—I’d imagine the sea is not so bright and colorful that far down, which should have been included in the fun facts, but kids will enjoy looking at this strange new world.

Kobee Manatee: Shipwreck Sea Friends is a cute young reader book that aims to educate and enchant children about the various fish and sea creatures that live in the ocean. Every page has "Kobee's Fun Facts" which give little readers basic information about fish found in the oceans, and (in this case) a bit about a particular shipwreck that the friends are going to visit. It had the potential be an engaging, beautiful book that young readers would love to spend time just looking at.
Unfortunately, Kobee Manatee: Shipwreck Sea Friends just falls a bit flat. The illustrations are gorgeous, the colors are soothing, and the characters all look very friendly. In terms of the drawings, it's a fantastic book. However, the dialogue is almost boring. Too much 'he said', 'she said', and so on. Little kids books need to be fun to read out loud. Even if it doesn't rhyme, it still needs to be interesting to read out loud. This Kobee Manatee book is not.

Overall, while I admire the goals, I can't say I care for the book. Kobee Manatee: Shipwreck Sea Friends just doesn't have that magic spark that makes a book special for children. The dialogue needs reworked to make it much more suitable for the ages that it's aiming at.

The illustrations are great, and I love the little side bar facts. The story however feel stiff and stilted. It moves forward in fits and starts instead of flowing smoothly.

These illustrations were absolutely beautiful, fun and just made the story perfect. My youngest daughter loved the animals and thought they looked friendly. The additional facts mixed into the story made this a fun way to learn something as well as being entertained. The simplistic story made it easy for my daughter to read to her sister. My girls loved showing off they knew the names of all the animals. I always let them ‘review’ these books because I value their opinion and think they have better authority than me in this genre. They loved it and it made them want to visit the local Sea Life Aquarium so I know what’s coming up on our weekend activity list.

This book is the third in the Kobee Manatee series and here our three friends, the friendly Kobee, cute Tess (a seahorse) and fearful Pablo (a hermit crab), are on their way to find and explore a historic shipwreck.
The SS Antonio Lopez had sunk in 1898 during the Spanish-American war seven miles west off the coast of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

We follow the three and get to know all the interesting sea creatures they meet and when they finally reach their final destination there’s a bit of commotion as one of the ship’s beams crashes onto poor Kobee’s tail.
Now he’s stuck and scared. Can his friends help and pull him free?

The book certainly offers some really beautiful artwork and children will love the cheerful and very colourful and detailed full page illustrations, but the story didn’t really grab me.

The three swim along, meet other fish, arrive at the shipwreck and that’s it more or less. We don’t really get to know the characters and that’s sad, because they all have enough potential for a really interesting fishtale to tell.

On the other hand, there are little boxes on each page, filled with Kobee’s Fun Facts and they are hugely interesting and the kids will learn amazing things about the octopus, sharks, coral reefs and much more. It’s fascinating to learn, an octopus can change colours and texture to hide from enemies or that a whale shark has the length of a school bus.

I read first the facts to my son (he’s 6) and then let him search the beautiful pictures for the fish described and he had fun doing it, but I think our Manatee deserves a good and exciting adventure story to really entice the character to a younger audience.

Overall Kobee Manatee: Shipwreck Sea Friends is a very beautiful picture book, packed with interesting facts, but sadly, not much of a story and I would rather recommend it to libraries or pre-school and primary school teachers for a class to enjoy, as books like this turn learning into fun.

Four friendly starfish from me for Kobee Manatee.

This is a colourful fun book showing the beauty of the world under the sea around Puerto Rico. The story follows Kobee the Manatee and his friends as they swim to find the wreck of SS Antonio Lopez. Along the journey, they meet numerous creatures that become their friends. The story itself is simple and not very interesting, but the fun facts on each page would be the reason to read this book. If you want to learn a bit about the sea creatures around Puerto Rico and get a smattering of information to pique further interest this is a great book to do that. You see what the various animals look like and there is a brief description of them. It is fun to read the fun facts, then find the fish or creature on the page that matches the description. The story itself is easy to read for beginning readers as well. A cute book for a class or school library.

This is a vibrant book with great information on ocean animals. I loved the illustrations! They are vivid and include a lot of detail that can be discovered together with your child. Lauren Gallegos definitely deserves credit for a great job. The fun facts and additional information are great and really make this an educational read.

As much as I enjoyed the illustrations and educational opportunities, I found the story lacking. The characters lacked personality, and there was very little description. I liked the idea behind the book, but the story could definitely be improved. Perhaps if it was simply expanded on with a bit more detail and description I would've enjoyed it a bit more. My three year old enjoyed it, but it isn't one he will be begging for over and over. If your child enjoys non-fiction, this may still keep them engaged, but if they are looking for a captivating story they may find this one a bit boring. The illustrations are enough to keep it engaging if it is used more as an ocean exploration / educational book.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Great book. This book has it all. Wonderful illustrations. A great story. Fun facts about each type of fish mentioned in the story. I love books that are educational as well as entertaining for the kids. I even learned about fish through the fun facts. The illustrations are very bright and colorful, the kids loved them.

My son read this book to me, it's part of his School reading challenge in Kindergarten. I actually really enjoyed this book and so did he.

This follows Kobee the Manatee and his friends as they swim to find the wreck of SS Antonio Lopez. Along the journey he finds numerous friends and each of these friends has a fun fact about the real sea creature. I found that the most interesting thing about the book, the fact that there is information about the creatures on every page and runs through their physical appearance as well as other facts.

The actual story wasn't nearly as interesting, my son was reading it and the story itself is easy to read along with - he's a six year old - but it wasn't a fascinating story. The facts were though!

A beautiful picture book with a fascinating message about life under the sea and species at risk of endangerment.

Main characters are three friends of different marine species- Kobee the Florida Matanee, Pablo the hermit crab and Tess a seahorse.

Gorgeous illustrations of marine life- bold, brightly colored and very beautiful to look at.
Kobee's wearing of clothing and a hat looked wonderful and added a fun twist of humor to the book.
The color-filled artwork created a very vivid and lively portrayal of regions under the sea.

Cute, highly informative and ideally suited to the 6-9 age range.

This children's book is a real mixed bag. The subject matter is great, the life beneath the surface of our oceans, and the illustrations are brilliant - vivid, interesting, with a real sense of fun and lots to look for on re-reads for the little ones. The 'fun fact's are an interesting addition, and although perhaps a little cramped and packed in, they're cool. But the narration of the story itself is sub-par for a children's book meant to be read aloud. Kobee Manatee narrates the story directly to the reader, which is cool, and there is no rhyming in the text, which also doesn't have to be an issue. But what is something that lessens the appeal of the book for children's reading is that there is little 'life' or 'energy' in the text. It's very 'I said this, she replied, he called, he laughed' over-written, breaking the flow. The author could have had the dialogue with far less 'dialogue tags'.

Also, there isn't much in the way of fun words or other wee word treasures in the story to delight readers - as the better children's authors pack their tales with, see Julia Donaldson, Margaret Mahy, Dr Seuss etc. This is a very straightline story of 'this happened, then this, I said this, she said that' - which in of itself wouldn't be an issue, but combined with the lack of rhythm, over-writing, and other things, just means that the story just falls flat, and doesn't feel that exciting. Which is strange considering it's about a group of fascinating creatures exploring under the oceans.

My two-year-old loved the illustrations, and pointing to the very fish and creatures, getting excited when various things appeared as we turned the page (eg octopus). The illustrations are wonderful. Unfortunately the text means what could have been a great kids book ends up being just 'so-so'.

The book made no sense and the illustrations weren't even marginally good. This book needs a complete overhaul.

A good book for very young children. Lovely illustrations.

I know I have read one of these books before. I do enjoy the book, love the illustrations, and find the fun facts entertaining. The story is simple, but the way it's written reminds me of a Saturday morning cartoon. Here the narrator is a character who is constantly talking to you. There is nothing wrong with this style of book, and kids do love it. Just for me, while I like these stories, they will never be award winners. But that is okay, because they are great stories for learning about all the fish in the ocean.

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