Meet the author

Michael Grover.

Writer & illustrator · United States

Michael Grover: animator-turned-cartoonist whose vertical, page-flipping graphic novel Deeply Dave sends a small boy to the ocean floor to rescue his mum, madcap fun for reluctant readers.

Michael Grover is an American animator and cartoonist whose middle-grade debut, Deeply Dave, adapts his acclaimed webcomic into a big-hearted undersea adventure. When Dave's astronaut mum crash-lands at the bottom of the ocean, only a small boy in a diving suit will plunge past glowing horrors and ravenous sea monsters to rescue her, in a story told in an inventive top-bound format that flips downward with every page, mimicking the endless scroll of a screen. Madcap, gross and genuinely thrilling, Grover's work pairs laugh-out-loud absurdity with real tenderness about a child who would go to the ends of the ocean for someone he loves. A fresh, format-bending choice for reluctant readers who like their adventures fast, funny and a little bit disgusting.