The Search for Carmella

From the author and illustrator of The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish, comes a follow-up featuring a marine biologist with a passion – this time it’s Dr Rose who studies the ocean and everything in it.

Ever since she was a little girl paddling in rock pools, Dr Rose started learning that there’s joy in the very act of searching: one’s end goal is not the be all and end all, rather it’s the journey that is so amazing, indeed it becomes her way of life. In this story she seeks a sea creature rumoured to live deep in the hidden ocean depths, possibly a myth or maybe a real marine animal – Carmella.

The doctor and her team of scientists and explorers descend to the dark blue-black depths in a submersible, seeking, searching, seeing a multitude of weird and wonderful creatures in an almost pitch-black world but not ‘Carmella-y-enough’ until … it’s time to resurface.

After so many hours however, have they found Carmella?

Full of the awe and wonder of possibility and reality, and stunningly illustrated, this is a unique, almost magical take on being a marine biologist. Share with a primary class and who knows …

The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish

The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish
Chloe Savage
Walker Books

Dr Morley is passionate about jellyfish; she’s even more passionate about finding the giant Arctic jellyfish, a creature nobody has ever seen. Having spent years researching and planning with the aid of her dedicated crew, she’s ready to start out on an adventure, bound for the icy waters of the Arctic Circle.

Their first animal sighting is of narwhals; perhaps they can lead the ship to that elusive jellyfish: or could it be the scientific data and samples members of her team collect as they dive hopefully into the chill beneath the ice? Days pass, blizzards howl but still the search continues. The days turn to weeks and then months but even then that hope remains strong. Eventually crew members start to think of home: maybe that giant Arctic jellyfish doesn’t really exist.

However, driven by their loyalty to their leader they don’t give up. At last thanks to the sunshine, comes hope in the form of a massive patch of algae. Convinced this is the opportunity she’s been waiting for, Dr Morley dives down.

Can you imagine how she feels on seeing nothing? Time to head home, she decides.

The words tell the story of the expedition from Dr Morley and the crews’ point of view but Chloe Savage’s stunning, action-packed illustrations documenting the search show that the creature is never far away but always, tantalisingly, just out of sight of the exploring party; or is it?