Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea by Robert Burleigh - ESSENTIAL

Burleigh, Robert Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea, illustrated by Raul Colon.  PICTURE BOOK.  Simon & Schuster, 2016.  $18.  Content: G.

Marie Tharp loved maps and she loved the ocean.  In a monumental effort, she and her colleague Bruce Heezen used data from hundreds and ship ocean soundings and created the first map of the ocean floor, discovering the Mid Atlantic Ridge and mothering the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift.

If you have teachers who are open to picture books in the middle school and high school, this would be a great way to show them how new theories are discovered and that science is still a new, and ever-changing field.  I am not sure if there is a lesson that could be developed to show how she had to make her maps from scratch, but that would be ideal for an upper level course.  Of course this would be good for the appropriate elementary school curriculum. 

EL – ADVISABLE.  MS, HS – ESSENTIAL.  Cindy, Library teacher

NOTE:  My science teachers tell me that if you teach in Utah, then this book is perfect for 9^th grade, unit 2.  They wish they had had it 5 weeks ago!  And they are insistent that we get two copies for them each to have one.