'Mission to the bottom of the Sea' by Jan Leyssens with illustrations by Joachim Sneyers is a picture book about a man who wanted to explore deeper in the ocean than anyone had before.

Almost 100 years ago the Bathysphere was invented by William Beebe and Otis Barton. William Beebe explored the ocean, but he wanted to see what was deeper. He put an ad in a paper a Otis Barton showed up to build a vehicle, but his one condition was that he go on the journey too.

I love how this story is told, but I especially loved the drawings. They have a quality to them that keeps the story interesting. I liked the addition of drawn plans and news articles.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Clavis Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

William Beebe wanted to go down lower in the sea and thought that the way to do it was to a special submarine built. He didn’t know how to do that. He put an ad in the paper. An engineer answered his ad. His name was Otis Barton. He was mor than willing to help William but Otis found out he didn’t have any money. Otis said he would do it if William would let him do something. Otis didn’t build a submarine , but he built a bathysphere. What is a bathysphere? Read the book and find out.

I didn’t know what it was. Then I saw a picture of it and knew! I had no idea what I was called or how it became invented. I found that fascinating! It’s a great book.

Mission to the bottom of the sea is a good children's book about the first exploration of the deep sea. A book presents a story and basic facts about the expeditions with the Bathysphere. I like the illustrations that go well with the story.

I have to express disappointment in this book. While on the one hand it does have colorful illustrations by Sneyers and it does tell a true story of underwater exploration in the newly-invented 'bathysphere ('bathy' meaning deep - something the book fails to educate on), the sins of omission are too great to let them go.

The exploration depicted here makes it look like it was all men all the time. There is brief mention of Else Bostelmann as an artist, but it makes no mention that she actually went underwater herself at one point - not in the bathysphere - but with a helmet on to make an oil painting, sitting on a chair on the bottom! I think that's at least worth a mention, but worse than this was the complete omission of any mention of Gloria Hollister, which was part of the expedition and who also took some trips down in the bathysphere herself, setting records for deepest dive by a woman.

While I can get with the idea of a book which educates about exploration like this, I can neither commend nor even condone one that seems dedicated to relegating the female contributors to mere support roles. Young girls need to be allowed to understand that they can do anything the men can do and this books fails disastrously in that regard. It also fails in the publisher's seeming lack of understanding that making it clear that women were involved is a selling-point for female audiences. This books seems like it's a boys-only-club editionI have to express disappointment in this book. While on the one hand it does have colorful illustrations by Sneyers and it does tell a true story of underwater exploration in the newly-invented 'bathysphere ('bathy' meaning deep - something the book fails to educate on), the sins of omission are too great to let them go.

The exploration depicted here makes it look like it was all men all the time. There is brief mention of Else Bostelmann as an artist, but it makes no mention that she actually went underwater herself at one point - not in the bathysphere - but with a helmet on to make an oil painting, sitting on a chair on the bottom! I think that's at least worth a mention, but worse than this was the complete omission of any mention of Gloria Hollister, which was part of the expedition and who also took some trips down in the bathysphere herself, setting records for deepest dive by a woman.

While I can get with the idea of a book which educates about exploration like this, I can neither commend nor even condone one that seems dedicated to relegating the female contributors to mere support roles. Young girls need to be allowed to understand that they can do anything the men can do and this books fails disastrously in that regard. It also fails in the publisher's seeming lack of understanding that making it clear that women were involved is a selling-point for female audiences. This books seems like it's a boys-only-club edition. marginalizing the female contributions.

Going where no one has gone before has long been the pioneer's compulsion. William Beebe was a man who dreamed of exploring the ocean depths but was frustrated by the limitations of submarines of his day. So he advertised for someone to make a sub that could travel even deeper.

Enter Otis Barton who had the mechanical ability to pull off the task (provided he could be part of the expedition). Barton crafted a sub that barely fit two grown men, and then the pair proceeded to test it out in shallow waters, then deeper waters while unmanned and finally, the brave day when they descended further than anyone had before! With no camera to take pictures, they meticulously described what they saw and radioed the information back to the surface where illustrator Elise Bostelmann brought their descriptions to life.

Future explorers with the advantage of photographic equipment, were able to substantiate the findings that Beebe and Barton had witnessed years before. Young people today can go see the Bathysphere at the New York Aquarium.

This is a wonderful book demonstrating the rewards of persistence, dedication, and teamwork. I loved the illustrations and the fascinating look at two pioneers in underwater exploration. Who knows what future scientist, or ecologist might be inspired by reading Mission to the Bottom of the Sea? This book would be a fabulous addition to any school or STEM library.

Disclaimer: I received a free digital copy of Mission to the Bottom of the Sea from NetGalley for the purpose of review. No other compensation was received.

Wow! I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never heard of any of this! I found this book to be both educational and entertaining. I really wish I’d had it when I taught the ocean zones. This would’ve been perfect and really engaging! I really liked the scrapbook style illustrations as well. Wonderful story!

I loved this picture book because true stories of adventure and learning are so inspiring! The illustrations are beautiful, and I looked up more after reading the book!

Mission to the Bottom of the Sea is an informative and genial recounting of the how American scientist Willaim Beebe and engineer Otis Barton collaborated to invent the bathysphere and then used it to explore the ocean depths. The text is clear throughout and easy to follow, though perhaps a bit plain both in vocabulary choices and imagery, of which there is very little. And I wouldn’t have minded a stronger sense of personality.

While the text is good if not great, the illustrations are a definite strength. There’s a nice double form used with many of the pages having two illustrations—one a vibrantly colored illustration and the other a sketch akin more to engineering schematics. It’s a nice way of keeping the engineering in the forefront as that aspect often gets lost in these sorts of works. Finally, I would have liked a bit more illustration of what they saw down there, though clearly that was more an issue of aiming for a concise book than anything else.

Mission to the Bottom of the Sea tells the story of naturalist William Beebe and engineer Otis Barton working together to create the Bathysphere. The story addresses problem solving and team work in clear, descriptive language. Scientific concepts and the technological limitations of the time were well explained. However, I do wish the story included a bit more of an emotional impact.

This journey of discovery is strikingly illustrated in earth tones and bright greens. The illustrations have scrapbook style drawings, which would encourage young artists to try designing their own diving suits and submarines. The story also includes Else Bostelmann, the gifted illustrator and natural history researcher who sketched the fish and plants for National Geographic magazine. Although the illustrations in this book are lovely, parents should take the time to look up her original artwork of the sea creatures. This section of the book is incredibly powerful, as it shows children how art and science came together for an epic exploration story which fascinated the world.

3.5- I've read other picture books about William and Otis's journey to the deep sea, so this one caught my eye, plus the cover looks great! This one focuses on the ship itself a bit more than the others. It's written in an easy-to-read fashion and the illustrations are nice.

As a family of fans of nautical adventures and ocean tales, it is great to find a non-fiction read that is suitable for younger children. The illustrations are great too, would be nice to see in picture book form

I have to admit, I knew nothing about William Beebe, Otis Barton or their interesting deep-sea dives in the Bathysphere before this wonderful picture book. However, after finishing this I immediately looked up more about this fascinating mission and I believe it will also pique the interest of younger audiences.

The amounts of text and illustration were perfectly balanced. The text kept me intrigued and drawn in, without oversimplifying everything. It was informative but welcoming for readers of all ages. Sneyers' illustrations gracefully accompanied the story and I even stopped to admire one of the final pages for a few minutes.

This was rather short, but I didn't mind that. It's a nice introduction to the story and anyone who wants to deep-dive into the story can check out more books about them at the library. The addition of Else Bostelmann made me realise how far we've come since then with our technology and how cool of a job she had. I look up to all of the characters in this book, they should be role models for any child who reads this.

I want to thank Clavis Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. This review will be posted to the Barnes & Noble website as well as Goodreads on the publication date, April 21 2020. Please contact me if you would like for this review to be published elsewhere or at another date.

3.5 stars.

Mission to the Bottom of the Sea by Jan Leyssens and Joachim Sneyers is actually not the first picture book I've read recently about William Beebe and Otis Barton's early deep-sea dives in the Bathysphere, but it's such an interesting story that it's impossible to mind.

This short picture book has a cute but informative writing style that introduces new readers to an important part of modern ocean exploration history. It serves as a solid and engaging introduction to a story that isn't nearly as well known as it should be. Sneyers's illustrations are definitely a highlight, helping to bring the story to life in a way that is fun and friendly for readers of all ages.

This book is a great introduction for all of the budding scientists and historians out there learning the basics through picture books, and I would recommend it for those kids especially.

The only thing that irks me is the fact that it was only 17 pages. The narration was crisp and to the point. The illustrations were so beautiful and enhanced the reading experience. It talks briefly about the deep sea expedition that William Beebe and Otis Barton went over 100 years before. This is the first time I'm hearing about them and as a history lover, I feel glad that I picked this one to read.

At the end of the day, I learned something informative, something that is sure to stick in my mind for time to come.

This was pretty good. My daughter (6) and I had just wrapped up a unit study on the ocean, including having touched on the Bathysphere, so when I saw this I knew I wanted to read it to her.

We had already read Otis and Will Discover the Deep, so I was definitely comparing the two, and I think this one fell a little short as far as enjoyment level. However, one thing I really appreciated here was the inclusion of Else Bostelmann - we found her interesting and it prompted a great discussion about living without cameras, and how they chronicled their finds without them.

The illustrations were neat, but the text was just a little dry.

This book takes a story about groundbreaking explorations and make it understandable for young audiences without dumbing it down. In addition, the illustrations are excellent and complement the text an effective ways. A fun book for getting children interested in history and sea exploration.

Mission to the Bottom of the Sea is a great book! I read it to the 4 year olds I babysit and they really enjoyed it. This is a children's non fiction book, but the information paired with the illustrations make this book perfect for any age!

This book tells the story of William Beebe and Otis Barton building a submarine and going on an underwater expedition. Even though this was non fiction the kids loved it! They had me read it to them again and again. This book is highly recommended!

An interesting read, but one that I don't think quite lightens the STEM approach, or makes it sexy enough. The artwork veers from cartoonish illustrations of the scientists going down in the world's first bathysphere and the woman up top dashing off illustrations based on their live, vocal reports, with technical blueprints, scientific diagrams and suchlike. So while the book is easy on the reader, with just one paragraph of text per double-page spread, the design doesn't really give the topic the light touch such a young audience would appreciate. The script just about shows off the physics and the daring of the project, but without a full engagement with the uniqueness of the bathysphere's story, or the true bizarreness of the life the adventure saw for the very first time.

Very short and concise with cute illustrations. The deep ocean is something I'm fascinated by and wished it was explored more. It's a good introduction to the two men who helped discover new sea creatures at the time and the effort they made.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with the digital copy for an honest review.