I was drawn to The Brilliant Deep: Rebuilding the World’s Coral Reefs: The Story of Ken Nedimyer and the Coral Restoration Foundation because of the illustrations. Yes, do not judge a book by its cover, but also yes, it can grab a reader’s attention to see if they want to “check it out” and I did.
I did not pay attention to the author while reading. Sometimes that can take away from a picture book for me. However, I was not really surprised to learn it was Kate Messner. She is AMAZING! I might not like everything she has done but do respect her talent and appreciate everything I read. While the illustrations are fantastic the story is straight forward without too many frills, but just the right tone. The illustrations are a bit more fanciful due to the nature of the colors and items that are portrayed, but this does not deter from the story but adds. Matthew Forsythe has images that tell their own story while complimenting the text of Messner.
When one young boy was watching man find space, he remembers that we need to stick our heads in the sand or more accurately the coral reefs, too. It is nice to be reminded that we do need to conserve all the areas of the world to this day. It is not just the rain forests, the air or our history, but the oceans are still in need of help. Messner introduces the reader to Ken Nedimyer and at the end gives information on the project, how we can help and a short glossary.