Great Carrier Reef

by Jessica Stremer, Gordy Wright (Illustrator)

Overview

An outstanding STEM picture book documenting the transformation of an aircraft carrier that was gutted and turned into the world’s largest artificial reef.

What happens when something designed to be unsinkable gets bombed to the bottom of the ocean floor? With careful preparation, new life can take root!

This incredible story brings young readers along on the journey of the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany—the Mighty O—as it gets stripped down to a steel shell for a new life below the waves.

After 25 years of service, launching more aircraft than any other carrier of its time, the ship found a new mission as an artificial reef off the coast of Florida. The Mighty O was prepped and reefed by a team of more than 150 scientists, engineers, and technicians. Today, it is home to a flourishing variety of marine animals.

Designed to encourage regrowth and protect vulnerable marine life, artificial reefs are a crucial tool in the fight against overfishing, pollution, and warming water temperatures. Extensive back matter reveals more about the Mighty O’s history, the diseases eating away at the world’s natural reef systems, and the role artificial reefs play under the sea, and budding marine biologists will love poring over the exquisite illustrations.

Books for a Better Earth are designed to inspire children to become active, knowledgeable participants in caring for the planet they live on.

A Cook Prize Silver Medalist
A Crystal Kite Midwest Region Honor Book
A Green Earth Book Award Recommended Title
A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
A Science Friday Best Science Book For Kids
An ALA Top 10 Sustainability Themed Children's Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
A Horn Book Fanfare Book
A CCBC Choices Book
A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823452682
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	07/04/2023
Series:	Books for a Better Earth
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	760,976
Product dimensions:	8.25(w) x 10.32(h) x 0.36(d)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jessica Stremer is married to a pilot who has deployed multiple times on an aircraft carrier. She has a B.S. in Biology, with an emphasis in Ecology, and her passion lies in inspiring curiosity, wonder, and respect for our natural world. This is her debut book for children.

Gordy Wright is an illustrator and printmaker who paints by hand in gouache and acrylic. Recent projects include Wild In the Streets by Marilyn Singer, and Strange But True by Kathryn Hulick. Gordy graduated with a first class degree in illustration from the University of the West of England and lives in Bristol.

Editorial Reviews

2023-03-29
A tribute to a decommissioned warship turned to a better purpose.

The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, or “The Mighty O,” saw action in the Korean and Vietnamese wars but rather than being scrapped at the end of its career, was scuttled off the Florida coast to serve as an artificial reef. It “remains the largest ship ever reefed,” and a sense of its length and bulk comes through clearly in Wright’s atmospherically lit, realistically detailed illustrations—some of which are full wordless spreads. Along with explaining in her spare account and one of several afterwords the importance of natural reefs as habitats and how they are endangered, Stremer highlights the painstaking efforts required to clear out the hulk, rid it of toxic substances, tow it to its final location, and control its sinking so that it comes to rest in a stable position. Amazingly, divers sent to inspect it only hours later found sea life already checking it out. Though Aimée M. Bissonette’s Shipwreck Reefs (2021), illustrated by Adèle Leyris, provides glimpses of a variety of manufactured reefs and closer looks at what lives on them, here the author’s quicker closing tally of marine residents gives the tale a properly triumphant finish. The groups of human workers appearing in a few scenes are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Recycling at its best. (select sources, tips for saving the reefs, index) (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews

★ "[A] clear, logical, and fascinating combination of natural and industrial. . . ."—The Horn Book, Starred Review

★ "[A] fanfare-worthy true story. . . . Matching the subtle poetry of Stremer's writing is Wright's gouache and acrylic art, which juxtaposes the ship's rugged, industrial look with that of colorful, relatively delicate sea creatures."—Shelf Awareness, Starred Review

"The straightforward narrative is concise but informative, conveying details of the boat’s transformation along with blunt facts about a dying marine environment. Full spreads of gouache and acrylic illustrations emphasize the enormity of the ship as it stretches across the pages. . . ."—The Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books
 
"This unique title with generous back matter will appeal to environmentalists and big-boat enthusiasts alike."—Booklist

"Recycling at its best."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher