Papa's Mechanical Fish

In the summer of 1851, with encouragement and ideas provided by his family, an inventor builds a working submarine and takes his family for a ride under Lake Michigan. Includes notes about Lodner Phillips, the real inventor on whom the story is based. Full color.

Candace Fleming and illustrator Boris Kulikov pair up to tell a fun story about a real submarine inventor in Papa's Mechanical Fish

Clink! Clankety-bang! Thump-whirr! That's the sound of Papa at work. Although he is an inventor, he has never made anything that works perfectly, and that's because he hasn't yet found a truly fantastic idea. But when he takes his family fishing on Lake Michigan, his daughter Virena asks, Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a fish?--and Papa is off to his workshop. With a lot of persistence and a little bit of help, Papa--who is based on the real-life inventor Lodner Phillips--creates a submarine that can take his family for a trip to the bottom of Lake Michigan.