Awards

• Booklist Top 10 Biographies & Memoirs for Youth
• Booklist Top 10 Science and Technology Books for Youth
• Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year
• School Library Journal Best Book of 2022

Overview

Born in a small village in eighteenth-century France, Jeanne Villepreux wasn’t expected to transform marine science. Curious, creative, and clever, Jeanne ventured to Paris by foot as a teenager. After achieving acclaim as a seamstress, she met a wealthy merchant and traveled with him to Sicily, where they married. Rather than settling into a life of domesticity on this beautiful island, she set out to investigate its natural wonders, from fossils and insects on land to the marvelous mysteries of the sea. In an era when women weren’t accepted into scientific societies and many naturalists based their findings on dead specimens, Jeanne fashioned her own fortune. She observed and experimented on living animals, in particular one very unusual shelled octopus called an argonaut. To keep argonauts and other sea creatures alive long enough to learn from them, she invented a device to hold them—the aquarium. With patience and persistence, she solved the two-thousand-year-old mystery of whether argonauts grow or steal their shells, and she made sure the scientific world knew about it. Author and octopus enthusiast Danna Staaf presents an engrossing look at the life and science of Jeanne Villepreux-Power, showing how this remarkable woman helped bring about a sea change in the study of marine life.

Full Product Details

9781728415772

Table of Contents

Reviews

From its very first scene on a sun-drenched beach in Sicily, this book bursts with the passion and enthusiasm of its subject, nineteenth-century naturalist Jeanne Villepreux-Power, who was bent on studying live sea creatures rather than the dead specimens of her contemporaries. With lively, engaging, and at times humorous text, Staaf deftly turns issues like the fallibility of biographies or the ethics of animal experimentation into thoughtful discussion points for young readers to explore. Fascinating from beginning to end!--Joyce Sidman, author of The Girl Who Drew Butterflies, winner of the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal -- Other Print (5/1/2022 12:00:00 AM) This story of one woman's pluck, determination, and scientific insight is a riveting read for anyone of any age!--Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus, a National Book Award finalist -- Other Print (5/1/2022 12:00:00 AM)

An account of the life of the pioneering Frenchwoman who invented the aquarium. While she is not a household name today, Jeanne Villepreux-Power's influence can still be felt. Born in 1794, Villepreux-Power was famed for her study of sea creatures, particularly a type of octopus called the argonaut. The book argues convincingly that sexism and a tragic shipwreck that sank 16 cases of her specimens, drawings, and notes made the brilliant scientist less well known than she should have been. Overcoming those obstacles, as well as the primitive state of life science study in the 1800s--in particular the limited ability to study sea creatures in their habitats--and aided by the privilege of being a White woman of means, Villepreux-Power invented the first glass aquariums to observe sea life and discovered that argonauts build their shells rather than find them at sea, as was believed at the time. Marine biologist, science writer, and fellow cephalopod expert Staaf details Villepreux-Power's life using a mix of existing research about the woman and more recent scientific findings. The book takes plenty of detours into history and culture to better explain thorny issues, such as the treatment of animals, full-page takes on the metric system, and the effects of oil on water. It feels like a few too many asides for a straightforward biography, but as a broader look at the life of a scientist in the 1800s, it's well researched and expertly explained. A seaworthy bio of a revolutionary scientist.--Kirkus Reviews -- Journal (8/1/2022 12:00:00 AM) From its very first scene on a sun-drenched beach in Sicily, this book bursts with the passion and enthusiasm of its subject, nineteenth-century naturalist Jeanne Villepreux-Power, who was bent on studying live sea creatures rather than the dead specimens of her contemporaries. With lively, engaging, and at times humorous text, Staaf deftly turns issues like the fallibility of biographies or the ethics of animal experimentation into thoughtful discussion points for young readers to explore. Fascinating from beginning to end!--Joyce Sidman, author of The Girl Who Drew Butterflies, winner of the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal -- Other Print (5/1/2022 12:00:00 AM) This story of one woman's pluck, determination, and scientific insight is a riveting read for anyone of any age!--Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus, a National Book Award finalist -- Other Print (5/1/2022 12:00:00 AM)

Author Information

Danna Staaf is a freelance science communicator with a PhD in marine biology. Her writing has appeared in Science, KQED, Earther, and io9, and her first book, Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods (now reprinted as Monarchs of the Sea: The Extraordinary 500-Million-Year History of Cephalopods), was named one of the best science books of 2017 by NPR. She created the science outreach program Squids4Kids and visits schools at every grade level, as well as venues from museums to libraries to tech companies. She lives in San Jose with her spouse, children, and innumerable plush octopuses.

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