Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau
By Jennifer Berne and Eric Puybaret
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Jennifer Berne
Jennifer Berne is an acclaimed children's author whose books include On a Beam of Light, Manfish, On Wings of Words (all Chronicle), and Look Up with Me (Katherine Tegen Books). She has been fascinated by the ocean since her childhood, and this book is based on her countless hours of research about evolution and the undersea world. Jennifer lives in the hills of Columbia County, New York, and spends her summers sailing along the coast of Maine. Visit her website at jenniferberne.com.
Read more from Jennifer Berne
Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Wings of Words: The Extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Manfish
Related ebooks
On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything You Need for a Treehouse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tree of Wonder: The Many Marvelous Lives of a Rainforest Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Follow the Moon Home: A Tale of One Idea, Twenty Kids, and a Hundred Sea Turtles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Over and Under the Snow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Butterfly Is Patient Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Over and Under the Pond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Island: A Story of the Galápagos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Beetle Is Shy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Read a Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stone Sat Still Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Rock Is Lively Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Redwoods Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sleep Tight Farm: A Farm Prepares for Winter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Over and Under the Rainforest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marvelous Cornelius: Hurricane Katrina and the Spirit of New Orleans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sock Thief: A Soccer Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Rock Can Be . . . Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from around the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If You Were the Moon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Exact Location of Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My First Geography Book: The World Tour of Stuffed Toys around Their Apartment Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hello, Rain! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Water Can Be . . . Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Silas' Seven Grandparents Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Over and Under the Canyon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFossil Huntress: Mary Leakey, Paleontologist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Children's Biography & Autobiography For You
Reaching for the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hiding Place Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Farmer Boy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Little House on the Prairie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hidden Figures Young Readers' Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cross and the Switchblade: The True Story of One Man's Fearless Faith Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Family Divided: One Girl's Journey of Home, Loss, and Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Many Faces of Josephine Baker: Dancer, Singer, Activist, Spy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler's Last Days: The Death of the Nazi Regime and the World's Most Notorious Dictator Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Woodsong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln: A Photobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Elk's Vision: A Lakota Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guys Read: True Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dav Pilkey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Snowman: The True Story of a Champion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Prairie Girl: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life of Fairness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki: and the Thousand Paper Cranes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Farewell to Manzanar Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lost Diary of Christopher Columbus’s Lookout Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Renaissance Artists: With History Projects for Kids Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Verdi for Kids: His Life and Music with 21 Activities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Manfish
115 ratings24 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gorgeous, short but sweet book that highlights Jacques Cousteau's life. The language is simple and perfect for appealing to kids. I really love that it tries to get children involved in protecting our environment by linking it to Cousteau's message, especially on the final page of the story.The main thing I wanted to mention is that I originally read the ebook version of this since it was available right away from my library. It was... nice but I knew I was missing something. So I ended up getting the physical book version and whoa! What a huge difference. The illustrations really come to life and you're able to emerse yourself in them. This is one of those cases where the ebook can never do this kind of physical book justice, and I feel that that may be the case for many children's books. I absolutely fell in love with the illustrations here. Get yourself the real book version of this - you won't be disappointed.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Manfish is subtitled "A Story of Jacques Cousteau." This picture book biography focuses on his younger years, especially his childhood, and less on the time after he became famous. The writing is poetic at times and the illustrations are gorgeous. ALL of the illustrations in this book are double-page spreads, some turned vertically to emphasize the depth of the ocean.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This narrative would be very beneficial to the classroom. Through reading about Jacques Cousteau, students could take note of his wonder and awe of his surrounding. They could also take note of his experiments and inventions that were results of him exploring and problem solving. This book could also be a mentor text for NGSS 5-ESS3-1, and students could see how Cousteau used movies to protect the environment.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This story is about a young boy named Jacques who grew up in France. He was fascinated with water from a young age. He was curious about why things floated and sunk. He wanted to discover a way to breathe underwater. He spent his days playing, creating and experimenting. He also had a fascination with movies and he wanted to understand how film was made. He saved his own money to get a movie camera and he took it apart and put it all back together. He spent his free time writing, directing and staring in home movies. As a young adult Jacques joined the French Navy and documented the places they sailed with his camera. He was given an opportunity to borrow a friends goggles to use in the ocean, from that day his world changed. He had experienced the underwater world and he developed a waterproof camera so he could take pictures of this new world. Jacques and his friend created rubber suits and flipper to help them underwater. Eventually Jacques created a new invention called the aqualung. With this new invention he was able to breathe underwater and explore the depths of the sea. He transformed an old navy ship into an explorer ship and set off to document the underwater world. He filmed his adventures so he could share the beauty of the sea with others. In time he began to notice the harm people were doing to the ocean, so he began to warn them through film.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This has become one of my favorite books. While the topic is dear to my heart, I absolutely love the illustrations with no other explanation of why than that they are just my style. I love the color usage of both the images and the text. I like the simplistic shapes and forms of the people and background images. I like the use of page formats. I just adore it. This is another book to use when talking about science and reaching goals.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One thing I liked the most about this book was the way it was written. This is definitely the most fun educational biography picture book that I have ever read. For instance, when the book reads, "Jacques dreamed that someday it would be you, exploring worlds never seen....Worlds that are now yours. To discover. To care for. And to love." It is being poetic and simple throughout the book and makes it easy for kids to read and absorb. The facts in this book are easily understood because of the way the author made the text. The pictures in this book were fun and imaginative, too. I appreciated the realistic 2-D pictures that carried lots of dark colors, but made them pop. Like when the book has a fold out section and Jacques is swimming down the pieces of the fold out. The dark blue background and the colors of all of the things he saw was awesome.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manfish is a story based on the life of Jacques Cousteau. He is an inventor that wanted to learn as much as he could about the life that he was living. He developed a passion for filming. He would film everything around him whether it was his family or just the nature around him. In his early 20's he went diving for the first time with a pair of goggles. After he had a taste for the ocean, he decided that he wanted to invent a way that he could stay underwater longer. At this time he created the aqualung. With the aqualung he had the ability to go underwater and film all of the life that no one had ever seen before. He used these films to create a save the ocean campaign. In the classroom I would use this as a read aloud during an ocean section or a section about global preservation. Genre: Informational, Non-fiction, Biography
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Chickadee nominee 2009-2010. I thought it was a bit wordy.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jaques Cousteau always dreamed of being able to swim in the sea with out have to come up for air. He invented the Aqua Lung to help him do so. He explored the sea and filmed what he saw to shown other people. He then starts to seen something sad happen. The fish are beginning to die because of the chemicals and garbage that is being dumped in the water.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau is written by Jennifer Berne and illustrated by Eric Puybaret. It tells the life of underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau from his childhood love of facisnation, the invention of the aqualung, and career spent discovering life underwater and advocating for better care of the oceans. This book is beautifully illustrated with such deep and vivid colors. I think that I would use this book to begin discussing different types of explorers (not just land explorers like Lewis and Clark or Columbus) and also different inventors. I think this book would be appropriate for students in grades 1-4.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a biography of Jaques Cousteau, one of the world's greatest oceanographers. Since he was a young boy he loved the ocean. All he wanted was to swim and breathe underwater. Eventually his drems came true and he did get the chance to breathe underwater with the help of an oyxgen tank. He studied the sea and fell in love with it even more. He also discovered how much we were polluting the ocean by dumping hazrdous chemicals into it that were hurting ocean life and habitats. He writes his own books about things that he has observed underwater and ways for us to be more aware of what we are doing that effects the ocean. I liked this book very much. The illustartions were nice and I thought the story of Jaques Cousteau's life was interesting.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This picture book biography paints a colorful and fun picture of the life of explorer Jacques Cousteau. It captures that sense of wonder and mystery that comes with the exploration of something new, which is a feeling most children will be able to relate to very well. This book could be useful in a lesson on explorers, or lessons on the ocean and marine life.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was a Great Book on the life of Jacques Cousteau, Has lot of good illustration and is well written
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This delightful biography about Jacques Cousteau captures the excitement of discovery and adventure that young people often feel when presented with new things in life. This book chronicles how Jacques' love of water and filming turned into a passion once he saw the world underwater. He and his friends invented scuba gear and became intensely interested in preserving the ocean. The pictures are simple, clean, and interesting of the ocean world. The writing style is fluid and lyrical. This book would be great to read aloud to children. The author entreats the audience in the end to take care of the world and its resources and encourages youngsters to discover their own worlds.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This picture book biography of one of the 20th century's most successful explorers, poetically and artistically tells the story of of Cousteau's journey from inquisitive child to television star. Berne shows Cousteau's constant inquisitiveness about the world around him , coupled with his drive to learn and understand and a relentless pursuit of his dreams. This is a man who was constantly plotting to make the impossible possible, like staying under water for more than just the length of a single breath or showing the rest of the world exactly what he and his underwater team were able to sea in the deepest seas.THe vivd and dramatic artwork closely match the storytelling to create a gripping account of one mans' adventure and contribution to the world of science and the imagination.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Awesome informative book about scientist, inventor, explorer, Jacques Cousteau. Beautiful double page spread illustrations tell the story of Cousteau and his love of the ocean. Loved it!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manfish combines the story of a boy who is intrigued with life underwater who becomes a man who is obsessed with life underwater with beautiful illustrations and a call for action. It would be a great introduction to oceanography and recycling/caring for our world.Manfish lacks descriptions of any of Cousteau's personal conflicts or weaknesses. A man as obsessive as Cousteau I'm sure had some weaknesses; I'm left wondering why Berne chose to leave this out.Still, the overwhelming amount of blue tones in the book brings the reader into the magic of water, and it is difficult to not enjoy the book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I picked this one up because I really enjoyed the cover illustration. Also, I have a weird fascination with Jacques Cousteau. The illustrations are what make this story worth your time. Very muted and soft-focusey. Some were done in a sequential style, like a film strip. In the story, you find out about what drove Jacques Cousteau to explore the oceans and seas of the world; you also learn about his inventions that facilitated his explorations. I enjoyed the book a lot.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Really gorgeous paintings illustrate this picture book biography of Jacques Cousteau. As Jacques discovers the sea, the reader sees all the wonderful plants and animals, too. As he dives deeper and deeper, we're treated to vertical spreads and unfolding pages that really capture the underwater wonderland that he explored. A short author's note gives a little information about the author's inspiration and some ideas for further exploring the world of Jacques Cousteau.Hand this one to aspiring marine biologists and fans of picture book biographies like Surfer of the Century by Ellie Crow and Richard Waldrep.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a softly and beautifully illustrated picture book biography of Jacques Cousteau. The illustrations were painted in acrylic on linen, and they are as soothing as the ocean life which they depict. Blues, greens, grays and shimmering silver take center stage in this short, but informative book. In illustrations showing human and marine life, marine life has an equal or greater presence - just as Cousteau would have liked.The narrative is simple, yet compelling, detailing his first use of his invention, the "aqualung," Berne writes, "Below the surface, Jacques swam and glided and dove. He did flips and somersaults. He stood upside down on one finger, and laughed bubbles into the sea. Jacques could breathe beneath the water! Now he could swim across miles of ocean, his body feeling what only scales had felt, his eyes seeing what only fish had seen."What a legacy! A great book!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loved it! The story and illustrations meshed perfectly, and I always love whatever Jennifer Berne writes. She has a way of explaining things simply, but with such color and music in her words. And who doesn't love a good adventure story about an amazing inventor of a guy?
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5American author Jennifer Berne and French illustrator Éric Puybaret team up in this picture-book biography of French explorer, inventor, oceanographer and film-maker Jacques Cousteau. From his early childhood, when he found water so fascinating and made his own home movies, through his time as a sailor, the narrative here chronicles how Cousteau eventually found a way to pursue his one true passion: exploring the world's oceans. Inventing an Aqua-lung, which allowed him to stay underwater longer than ever before, he recorded what he saw with his friends and colleagues, opening up a whole new world - the underwater world - previously unknown to humanity...Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau is the second picture-book biography of Cousteau that I have read, following upon Dan Yacarino's The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau, and on the whole I found it quite engaging. Berne's narrative is involving, and she manages both to capture the allure that the sea had for Cousteau, and to highlight all the many areas of achievement where he excelled. The accompanying artwork is lovely, with lots of bluish-green tones underwater, and some really beautiful depictions of aquatic life. I do feel that there should have been some more information as to dates, something entirely missing from both the main narrative and the author's note. Many child readers won't already be familiar with Cousteau, so that information could be very helpful to them, in situating him in a historical context. Leaving that criticism aside, this is one I would recommend to picture-book readers interested in the oceans, in exploration, or in Cousteau.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5“Manfish” is a biographical picture book of the famous oceanographer, Jaques Costeau. This book speaks of Jaques childhood, how he came to love the ocean, and his successes. This book teaches about loving the sea and taking care of the environment. I very much enjoyed this book for many reasons. One thing that I really loved about this book was the illustrations and the layout of the book. The background of each page is colored in with shades of blue and teal. I felt that these shades of blue and teal added to the aquatic feel of the text. There were also a few pages that folded out vertically, showing the depth of the ocean. Something else that I liked bout this book was how the text was presented on a few pages of the book. The text was written in a wave-like form, alluding to the ocean feel of the book. The last thing that I loved about this book was how the author not only taught about Jaques Costeau but also educated the readers about ideas of aquatic life. The author mentioned Jaques invention of what he called an aqualung (common day oxygen tank). The author made sure to mention to the readers that “aqua” means water to the readers, to avoid confusion.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The soft blue-tones give an underwater feel to this gentle biography. The picture book links Jacques Cousteau's childhood interests with his ultimate life’s work. Cousteau was multitalented, with friends he invented the aqualung and underwater cameras. He made numerous movies about the ocean and was a war hero. Manfish would be useful for lessons about biography or conservation. An interesting twist would be to use this book in the fifth grade study of explorers showing students that exploration is not something that only happened 400 years ago.