You Wouldn't Want to Be in the First Submarine!: An Undersea Expedition You'd Rather Avoid

You Wouldn't Want to Be ...

by Ian Graham, David Antram (Illustrator), David Salariya (Created by)

Hilarious illustrations, captions, and sidebars describe the horrible conditions inside early submarines and the many dangers that those who traveled inside endured. Simultaneous.

Genres: History, Childrens, Nonfiction, Picture Books

32 pages, Library Binding

First published November 1, 2008

About the author

After working as an in-house journalist and editor in consumer electronics magazines, Ian Graham became a freelance writer. He has written more than 230 illustrated non-fiction books for children and teens, and contributed chapters to books including Dorling Kindersley’s Know it All and Big Ideas that Changed the World. He has a degree in applied physics and a postgraduate diploma in journalism.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

While informative, the flippant and humor-oriented nature of this series doesn't handle this subject matter well. Most of the books in this series deal with disgusting or difficult professions, which can lend itself well to humor. This one deals with the Hunley, the Civil War submarine which achieved several things, but at a horrendous loss of life, sinking three times with all of the crew dying on two of the occasions.
Still, if you want to teach a child about the history of the Civil War, this format could have its uses, and it does have a lot of good information.

[Duane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best book in the series! With great illustrations, young readers will learn the history of not only submarines, but submarines in the Civil War. The author does a masterful job of giving young readers just the right amount of information to make young readers educated, yet entertained. I learned so much from this book! A great book for Civil War fans, submarine fans, and reluctant readers.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Da Vinci was WAY ahead of his times...the first concept (never initialized) was designed by him....Otherwise the book focuses on the first major credited submarine used during the Civil War, the Hunley... talks about the primitive technology, designs, and the horrible failures/attempts of the first submarines.

[Rebecca Heywood · Rating 5 out of 5]

cute, even my son liked to read it. very informative and fascinating to read for both kids and adults.

[The Brothers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asher (8yo) read.

[Kelly Carey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides an interesting history of the first submarine as it relates to the Civil War.

[Laura The Book Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love all the "You Wouldn't Want to Be..." books