Whale Fall Cafe

Written by Jacquie Sewelll

Illustrated by Dan Tavis

Publisher: Tilbury Publishing

Summary: One medium-size whale carcass delivers as much food to the dark, cold ocean depths as 4,000 years of sinking food particles. When a dead whale arrives, the café opens for business, and who better than Dan Tavis to show us the bizarre deep-ocean diners who show up?

Hagfish, zombie worms, sleeper sharks―this group of patrons is stranger than the denizens of the Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars. A fish in a lab coat, piloting a deep-sea submersible, is our guide to the weirdly fascinating goings-on miles beneath the ocean surface.

The backmatter includes rare whale-fall photos from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Dr. Robert Vrijenhoek of MBARI and Dr. Craig Smith, a deep-ocean ecologist at the University of Hawaii, have helped Jacquie Sewell to ensure scientific accuracy.

“…Young whale enthusiasts will lap this up, and primary-grade science teachers will have the crown jewel of the next marine life unit. "
― EB, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

“Tavis brightens his setting’s inky depths with glowing, brightly hued, and proficiently rendered images of voracious sea creatures converging on their benthic banquet….A revealing glimpse of a rarely studied link in the oceanic food chain."

― John Peters, Booklist

Published: April 20, 2021