I previously had posted a review of this based on an e-book review copy that was poorly formatted. I said in that review that I thought the text and illustrations were wonderful but the formatting made it impossible to give an honest assessment. I did, however, recommend people check the book out to see what it looked like for themselves.

I have since seen the book and I can assure you it is as wonderful as it seemed to be, hidden behind the poor formatting. I love this book cover to cover and I recommend it highly.

The "unhinged history" series deals with various historic odd couples, in this case, William Beebe and Otis Barton, early explorers using the Bathysphere to study the depths of the ocean. While you would expect a book like that to deal with the history of their adventures, what surprised me was how much this book was formatted almost as a primer for how more adult books are written.

The book starts with two quotes from Barton and Beebe then moves to an introduction on the concept of poetry and rhyming, The book itself is written in couplets and the introduction helps a young reader better understand the way the author is working with words and rhythms -- a remarkable way to begin.

The story moves in a straightforward manner through failures and successes, with the delightful text an easy match to the amusing and colorful illustrations. There are little asides here and there from the author explaining small changes in style -- for example, there is a section at the beginning in black and white which the author explains is the prologue -- "like an old movie."

The book ends with an appendix-like section detailing marine life that Barton and Beebe observed as well as an illustrated chart dealing with the history of deep-sea diving. It ends with a page with a brief biography of Gloria Hollister who served as an assistant to the two men, detailing her contribution. It is a welcome nod not just to the idea of women in the sciences but also that assistants are just as much a part of the story as those whose names are better known.

I love this book and I know part of that is from a childhood spent reading and loving truly creative books. Check this one out -- highly recommended.

What an interesting book! Learning about William Beebe, Otis Barton, and the first bathysphere was made fun in this rhyming tale, covering the trials and successes of the history-making submersible. At the end of the story, there are illustrations showing deep sea creatures that the explorers encountered, an illustration showing the specs of the bathysphere, a map showing where they were doing the diving, an illustrated history of diving suits and apparatuses, and a biography of Gloria Hollister, the scientist who accompanied them and assisted in the dives, certainly a remarkable thing for the times. Learning about her was very interesting, she was quite an inspirational person! I especially appreciated the author's note on the types of poetry used in the text- that was something I was not expecting to learn about, but it was a nice surprise. The illustration are colorful and fun, full of detail. A great STEM book to add to any grade school library or personal collection.

The development of the diving bell in rhyme! This was novel. I think the book will find it's place among books on inventors and their inventions on shelves in classrooms and libraries- or it should. I think kids will enjoy this story of how this deep sea diving devise was developed. Adults might find it good read, as well. Illustrations were entertaining with lots of fun details; I think it will look great in color.

Who would've thought that learning history could be this much fun? As someone who always struggles with memorizing past events, this book sure did an amazing job of teaching me about the evolution of human diving. The plot says a lot about what this book is all about but when you actually read this story you get so many details and cool facts, rhymes and fun illustrations that learning about the characters lives and their explorations simply becomes a joyfull read. The book makes you feel like you're part of the characters journey and that's hard to do for most books, at least it is with me as a reader. So what I'm trying to say is, this book is awesome and should definitely be given a chance. Who knows, maybe you learn something new and have a great time reading about the adventures of the 19-th century explorers or as I'm sure Gloria Hollister would say "detectives' seeking nature's secrets".