Okay, it's not about diving per se. However, it may captivate young minds with its Jules Vernesque sci-fi retake on World War I as fought with a 19th century version of high technology.

It starts with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, of course, and the escape of his fictionalized son Aleksandar. He meets Deryn, a Scottish girl who has disguised herself as a boy to join the British Air Service.

Together, they get swept into the world of war fought with zeppelins, walking machines and other half-beast half-machine creatures. One of them, the leviathan, is a dirigible that was grown on the genetic chassis of a whale.

Heroes and heroines hark back to Victorian days of exploration for adventure and a strong sense of what is proper. It's a fast-paced plot that caroms between opposites of boy / girl, commoner / aristocrat, man / machine, Darwinists / and bio-engineers, which presents an underlying theme of acceptance of others' ideas and people.