Deep-Sea Exploration: Science, Technology, Engineering

by Wil Mara

The darkest, deepest reaches of the oceans are home to some of the only places on Earth that remain unexplored by humans. Readers will find out how researchers and engineers are working to map out these mysterious depths. They will also learn how humans first began exploring the planets oceans and how sea exploration has changed over time.

Genres: Nonfiction

64 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2015

About the author

Wil Mara has worked as an author for over 34 years and currently has more than 325 books in print. He has written both fiction and nonfiction, for children and adults. His books have won multiple awards, reached bestseller lists, earned excellent reviews, and been translated into more than a dozen languages. 2005’s Wave won the New Jersey Notable Book Award, and 2012’s The Gemini Virus remained on Amazon’s list of ‘Ten Bestseller Medical Thrillers’ for 14 consecutive weeks. The most recent novel in his disaster series, Fallout, was nominated for the Edgar Award for Novel of the Year. And his children’s nonfiction publications have won countless awards and terrific reviews in all the leading trade journals, including Booklist, School Library Journal, Kirkus, and others.

Much of his work for children has been nonfiction for the school-library market. He also ghostwrote five of the popular ‘Boxcar Children’ mysteries. And starting in 2019, Rosen Publishing released the first of his new ‘Twisted’ series, which has been described as “Twilight Zones for kids.” It became the most pre-ordered fiction series in the company’s history. The first ‘Twisted’ book, The Videomaniac, was released on January 1 and sold through its first printing in less than a month. The second, House of a Million Rooms, was released on March 1 and, just a few weeks later, was chosen as a Main Selection Title by the Junior Library Guild.

Wil was also an editor, administrator, and executive inside the industry for over 20 years, working for such houses as Scholastic, McGraw-Hill, Macmillan, and Prentice-Hall until turning to fulltime writing in 2005. He is an associate member of the NJASL and an executive member of the Board of Directors for the New Jersey Center for the Book, which is an affiliate of the US Library of Congress. He is also the vice president of the Literary Alliance of New Jersey, the host of the ‘Voice of American Libraries’ podcast, and the 2019 recipient of the Literary Lion of New Jersey Award, whose past winners include Gus Friedrich, Dean Emeritus of Rutgers University, and Joyce Carol Oates, National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Wil is also an experienced speaker, presenter, and voice artist, having visited more than 300 schools and other institutions, and done the audio readings for many books, including his 2012 thriller The Gemini Virus. He continues to speak to audiences across the country (including via video) and do voice work as his writing schedule permits.

Reviews

[Nancy Kotkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is billed as a career guide for kids, but there's not much career information included in this book. Instead, it focuses heavily on how cool deep-sea exploration is. Admittedly that's true, but after reading this book I still have no idea what a typical day is like for any of the careers that are briefly described in Chapter Three.

The text is choppy and unevenly focused. Eight of the book's 57 pgs are devoted to a wealthy Hollywood filmmaker's indulgence of his childhood dream to explore the deep sea. While that's exciting for him, I'm not sure how much the average person can relate to that.

This book was published in 2015 but the salary and job growth statistics listed are from 2012. Part of the Calling All Innovators series, which is a great idea, but this book only partially fulfills the expectations of being an actual career guide.