Hidden Depths: Amazing Underwater Discoveries

Alison Mews is co-ordinator of the Centre for Instructional Services at
Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Holdcroft uses brightly coloured cartoons with speech bubbles and text
boxes to tell the stories of 10 of the most sensational undersea
discoveries, from sunken treasures to a recovered space capsule.
Submerged ships abound, along with such bizarre natural phenomena as
underwater smoking chimney stacks and fossilized sea creatures.

Each topic is covered in a double-page spread of mostly illustration
and a few paragraphs introducing the amazing-but-true story. Fascinating
facts and humorous comments in the text boxes and speech balloons flesh
out the tale. Some of the illustrations contain hidden objects (e.g.,
Jamaica’s 17th-century sunken city has five anachronistic items). A
treasure-hunt maze and a deep-sea-diving board game are included. This
light approach doesn’t impart in-depth information, but may be
enthralling enough to motivate readers to further discovery in the final
“Museum” and “Library” sections.

This book, and the earlier ones in the series—Hidden Worlds (2002)
and Hidden Treasure (2003)—will definitely appeal to reluctant and
willing readers in upper-elementary and junior-high grades. Recommended.