The history of human effort to breathe underwater across millennia opens with a description of ancient Greek sponge divers holding heavy stones to help them sink rapidly. They also learned to breathe through hollow reeds when near the water’s surface. Aristotle described a diving bell around 400 B.C., and innovations over the next thousand years improved the air flow in and out of the bell. In the 18th and 19th centuries, compressed air allowed workers to spend more time inside, but returning to the surface often caused painful cases of the bends, or decompression sickness. Later individual diving bells of a helmetlike construction evolved into a closed-circuit system using a portable oxygen tank called a rebreather. In 1934, inventors of the bathysphere set new records for depth diving, and in the following decade Jacques Cousteau and Émile Gagnan created the aqua-lung. More recent vessels, like small submarine submersibles, able to explore surfaces and shipwrecks far below the ocean’s surface. The contemporary multiracial family introduced on the opening end papers sorting through diving gear at home in what looks like an upcoming trip to Greece, reappear in illustrations throughout the book, and then can be seen prepping photography equipment on the closing papers as they ready for a Kenyan safari.

DIVE! is a fascinating introduction to the comprehensive world history of diving by award-winning artist Chris Gall.

How do you breathe underwater? What tools can we use to go deeper and deeper into the oceans? And...what's down there?

Two-thirds of our Earth is covered in ocean, yet only 5% of it has been explored.

DIVE deep into our long history of sea exploration to learn why, how, and when humans have dived, and uncover our biggest questions about what hides in the Earth's deepest waters.

Perfect for STEM-oriented minds and young and old readers fascinated by the sea, Dive! is a must-have to add to any nonfiction shelf.