Claire A. Nivola

I thought Claire Nivola's Orani was a beautiful book, but with a limited potential audience. I was delighted to see that she's produced a book that's just as breathtaking artistically and textually but more accessible to children and adults looking for a read-aloud.

Nivola tells the story of Sylvia Earle, oceanographer from her childhood of observation in the New Jersey country and her first introduction to the ocean after their move to Florida to her ground-breaking explorations and show more discoveries of ocean life.

Sylvia Earle's adult life of exploration looks at her accomplishments - building and diving in submersibles, studying the ocean, and living underwater and also at the beauty of the ocean that she loves and tries to convey to the world.

Nivola's illustrations are amazing - she has managed to show the vastness of the ocean while still focusing on the stunning details of teeming life beneath the waves. Her watercolors are spare but detailed, colorful but simple. The picture of the whales swirling in elegant balletic moves beneath the waves is one of the few pieces of art I've seen that complete captures their weightlessness.

An author's note gives more details about Sylvia Earle and the plight of the ocean, while a bibliography lists a number of sources for the frequent quotes from Earle sprinkled throughout the text.

Verdict: The text is lengthy for a read-aloud to younger children like preschoolers, but would be great for an older read-aloud for grade school kids or reading aloud over a period of time. However, children and adults of all ages will appreciate the artwork. I rarely purchase picture books that aren't optimal read-alouds for at least one age group in storytime, but this is more than worth making an exception to that rule.

ISBN: 9780374380687; Published March 2012 by Farrar Straus Giroux; Borrowed from the library; Purchased for the library show less

This lovely picture-book biography of the nineteenth-century Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus, and her best-remembered work, The New Colossus, whose final lines - "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" - are indelibly connected to the Statue of Liberty, and to the idea (well, one of them, anyway) of the immigrant in show more American culture, moved me to tears this morning, as I read it on my morning commute.

Opening with Lazarus' comfortable childhood and youth, as the daughter of prosperous New Yorkers, and then moving through her gradual awakening to the realities of poverty and suffering, particularly amongst immigrants (many of them Jewish, like herself), her growing involvement as an educator in the immigrant community, and as an advocate for the less fortunate in the press of the day, the book concludes with her penning of her famous sonnet, as part of an effort to raise money for a base for the Statue of Liberty, and the great fame the poem has won, even down to the present day.

Linda Glaser's deceptively calm narrative has an emotional depth to it that will immediately draw the reader into her story - into Emma Lazarus' story. The accompanying watercolor and gouache artwork by Claire A. Nivola is incredibly beautiful, with a somewhat stylized feeling that never detracts from its emotional impact. I'm struggling to express just why it is that this title so moved me... perhaps because, through Lazarus' awakening to the world around her, and her incredible commitment to doing something about the injustices of that world, the reader too feels awakened? In any case, Emma's Poem is just a lovely, lovely book, one I recommend to anyone (teacher, parent, librarian) putting together a lesson on immigration or the Statue of Liberty, and to young readers interested in those topics, or in Emma Lazarus. show less

Beautifully told and beautifully illustrated, this picture-book biography of Sylvia Earle, the oceanographer, environmentalist and author - her books range from adult titles on marine ecology (The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One) to children's picture-books with a similar theme (Dive: My Adventures In the Deep Frontier - who has done so much as an advocate for the seas, is as engaging as it is informative. A biologist and botanist before she knew what the words meant, show more Sylvia grew up on a farm in New Jersey, where she spent her time observing the flora and fauna of the nearby pond, stream and fields. When her family moved to Florida, to a little house right on the Gulf of Mexico, she "lost her heart to the ocean," becoming fascinated by the teeming life in the world under the water. It was a passion she would follow in school and after, becoming a world renowned scientist and aquanaut, and a fierce proponent of protecting the life in the ocean.

The third of Claire A. Nivola's picture-book biography projects that I have read, following upon Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai, which she both wrote and illustrated, and Emma's Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty, which she illustrated for another author, Life in the Ocean is a title that I greatly enjoyed reading. The author's descriptive prose gives readers a good feeling for Sylvia, especially in her early years, when she was "too curious to be afraid," and creates in them great sympathy for her passionate attachment to the seas. As with her other books, Nivola's artwork is just lovely, with beautiful use of color - I loved the varying shades of blue she used in the ocean landscapes, depending upon how deep the waters were, and what time of day it was - and charmingly stylized human figures. I think I will have to track down more of her work - perhaps Orani: My Father's Village? In any case, this is one I would highly recommend, to all young ocean lovers, and to children who enjoy reading stories about pioneering explorers and scientists. show less

What an incredible narrative. It manages to show the ecological benefits of small scale farming and maintaining local fauna, as well as depicting strong role models for young girls, all while maintaining accessibility and avoiding pretention. The book paints a portrait of Wagnari Maathai as a determined and intellectual leader and other Kenyan women, regardless of educational background, as key players in this national environmental movement. The illustrations maintain the lightness of the show more watercolor medium while still having intricate details and interesting textures, making the sweeping landscapes captivating without being overdone or too heavy handed. The same can be said for the book’s language: some direct quotes from Maathai provide moving imagery. This is not just a good book, but it is an important message full of positive and inspiring ideas. show less