Ocean Speaks: How Marie Tharp Revealed the Ocean's Bigget Secret

• Publisher: Tundra
• Year: 2020
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 3 MB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN: 0735265097

✦ Synopsis

Meet Marie Tharp (1920-2006), the first person to map the Earth's underwater mountain ridge, in this inspiring picture book biography from the author of Shark Lady.
From a young age, Marie Tharp loved watching the world. She loved solving problems. And she loved pushing the limits of what girls and women were expected to do and be. In the mid-twentieth century, women were not welcome in the sciences, but Marie was tenacious. She got a job at a laboratory in New York. But then she faced another barrior: women were not allowed on the research ships (they were considered bad luck on boats). So instead, Marie stayed back and dove deep into the data her colleagues recorded. She mapped point after point and slowly revealed a deep rift valley in the ocean floor. At first the scientific community refused to believe her, but her evidence was irrefutable. She proved to the world that her research was correct. The mid-ocean ridge that Marie discovered is the single largest geographic feature on the planet, and she mapped it all from her small, cramped office.
Review:
A scientific journey through sexism and across the ocean floor. Marie Tharp (1920-2006) grew up fascinated with the natural world but as a girl was not allowed to study it. The accessible text focuses on general rather than specific historical detail but provides overall context; when war broke out and women were encouraged to learn about science, she welcomed the opportunity and eventually landed a job in a laboratory. As male scientists returned home, however, they were sent to do research while women such as Tharp were confined to desks. But Tharp was charged with creating a map of the ocean floor, a project that engaged her skills and imagination and led to her identification of a great rift, information that was initially dismissed as "girl-talk" and eventually revolutionized earth science. Engaging and inventive illustrations, including one fabulous foldout that depicts her expanding map, show her gradually becoming the skilled scientist and ocean cartographer she is recognized as today. Tharp presents white and race goes unmentioned, though there are darker-skinned people depicted in the background. The narrative doesn't mention what Keating places in her author's note: that when findings were first published, Tharp received little or no credit. Still this is a story that will doubtlessly inspire curiosity and consideration of the many forms of exploration and scientific inquiry while showing how one woman was able create new knowledge despite sexist constraints. An intriguing tale of feminism, scientific exploration, imagination, focus, and resilience. (Q&A, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 6-10) COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews