Title: Scuba Zak Meets Thaddeus the Barracuda
Author: Alice Cypress
Illustrator: Blueberry Illustrations
Publisher: The Peppertree Press
ISBN: 978-1614933465
Pages: 33
Genre: Children’s Books
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin
Hollywood Book Reviews
Alice Cypress teaches a wonderful moral in her story Scuba Zak Meets Thaddeus the Barracuda, an illustrated children’s book catering to the 8 year old and younger genre.
Having successfully published previous children’s books, Alice has sharpened her messaging by having her galley text bounce around with a whimsical beat and rhyme, allowing for a lulling feeling of adventure and beauty – making bedtime reading a perfect time for this Scuba Zak story. In this book, I must say, the artwork by Blueberry Illustrations is extraordinary in its visionary storyline, with very good use of lighting, perspective and colors. Plus each of Zak’s eye expressions, within the underwater mask, exemplifies an expression of feelings uniquely suited for that particular picture and emotion of the character.
Being a SCUBA diver myself, I too once had an encounter with a Barracuda wile underwater off the Florida Keys, just like in this story; solidifying a memory indelible in my mind as fresh as yesterday even to this day … some decades later. Cypress’ story echoes the same feelings of anxiety, fear, curiosity and admiration I experienced when viewing the predator fish in its own environment. Knowing that Alice Cypress is a SCUBA diver suggests to me she also had the experience, which she cleverly manifested as the root theme in her book.
Scuba Zak Meets Thaddeus the Barracuda is an adventure story with depth beyond the words. The undersea life of Trumpet fish, Spotted Drum fish, Squirrelfish and others enhance the knowledge of the reader learning the names of many other types of fish. Even the coral and underwater plants are described to amplify the imaging of the drawings. Step-by-step, the serenity and peacefulness of below the ocean’s surface is created, until of course, Thaddeus appears. What will the Barracuda do? Will he bite Zak?
Each of Alice Cypress’s books has a moral. The moral of this story was not to pre-judge someone by the way they look or dress. A lesson more important nowadays than in the past, this story embeds this lesson, as children are off to bed. At the end of the book Alice Cypress asks the question to the reader to promote a discussion with an adult about “prejudice.”
Scuba Zak is an excellent addition to any family library with small children, or as a thoughtful gift for a preschooler’s birthday party.