SOLVED. Children's Picture Book - Boy visits an inventor, brings a rubber tube with him that helps inventor finish his submarine. Inventor takes boy in submarine, see mer-people riding bikes, & inventor has underwater house that they visit. [s]

[Jordan]

Unknown publishing date. I read this book as a kid, most likely between the years of 1999 and 2005. The mer-people in the book are men and women, and they are amicable with the "inventor." The illustrations were more cartoon-y than realistic. The submarine/car was yellow, I believe. The inventor and the boy might have been related (?). I'm not sure why the boy was visiting the inventor in the first place. The submarine and the underwater house connected by circular hatch-type doors. The rubber tube the boy brought the inventor near the beginning of the story allowed the doors to seal to one another. At the end of the book, the boy sees the inventor driving a red corvette with one of the mer-people in the car, I think. I unfortunately do not remember many other details.

[Rainbowheart]

The Mermaid and the Major?

You Will Live under the Sea?

[Jordan]

Both of those books have many elements of the one I’m searching for, but neither is the book. Thanks for these suggestions, though!

[Ayshe]

20,000 Baseball Cards Under the Sea maybe?

[Jordan]

YES! 20,000 Baseball Cards Under the Sea is the book! This has been haunting me for a year. Thank you Ayshe for figuring this out for me, haha!