Deep dives and high leaps — into sea, sky and physics

The best nonfiction doesn’t just sit there on the page like a tired mom on a couch. It’s got verve and energy and wit — and all three of these new picture books on exploring the breadth and depth of the world have personality to spare. Whether they’re taking readers far into the vastness of space or into the dark depths of the ocean, they offer amazing views and viewpoints.

“Bok’s Giant Leap: One Moon Rock’s Journey Through Time and Space” by Neil Armstrong, illustrated by Grahame Baker Smith. (Ages 4 through 8. Crown Books for Young Readers. $17.99.)

“Rocks remember,” as geologists say, and Bok — a chunk of basalt with craters for eyes — has a history that goes back to the cosmic collision that caused the formation of the moon.

Neil Armstrong’s friendly prose tells the story of how Bok watches with geological patience as our planet changes, through the rise of oceans, the beginning of life, shattering asteroid impacts and the age of dinosaurs, although he dozes through most of human history. He wakes from his nap when he’s rudely thrown into a box and taken back to Earth by an astronaut.

“After all he’s seen, Bok must be very wise” — at least, he would be if he’d stayed awake long enough.

Born from the combination of Armstrong’s adventures and his imagination, this sprightly tale follows the long life of a rocky ambassador and explores the birth of the moon as well as the ages of Earth.

“I’m a Neutrino: Tiny Particles in a Big Universe” by Eve M. Vavagiakis, illustrated by Ilze Lemesis.

(Ages 7 through 9. MIT

Kids Press. $18.99.)

The first in a series of books about — what else? — astrophysics, this odd and dynamic story-in-verse, written by a physicist, explains a small, mysterious particle “so small that matter to me barely matters at all.”

Rendered as a spiky, colorful creature, it’s playful and mysterious — as it perhaps seems to physicists who still struggle to understand it. In the back, the “Know Your Neutrinos” section explains what scientists know, and how the quirky illustrations depict such odd phenomena as a neutrino’s flavor oscillation, neutrinos’ role in the birth of the universe and their incomprehensibly tiny size.

“I matter to the universe,” the dancing neutrinos say, “and I matter to you.”

“Anglerfish: The Seadevil of the Deep” by Elaine M. Alexander, illustrated by Fiona Fogg.

(Ages 4 through 8. Candlewick Press. $17.99.)

It might not be fair to judge a book by its cover, but the arresting cover of “Angerfish,” with the needle-toothed creature about to chomp down on the title, is a wonderful encapsulation of this entertaining biography of a deepsea terror.

From its beginning as blobby fry in the sunlight zone to its transformation into a predator of the midnight zone, the book traces a life of waiting and chomping. “She glides alone — fierce, hungry, patient,” until she meets a tiny mate and releases eggs that will start the process again.

A heavily illustrated guide at the end depicts other species of anglerfish, including such deep-sea oddities as the red-lipped batfish and the footballfish, and other details of life in the ocean’s different zones.

It’s fascinating from beginning to end — and a bit nightmarish, in a good way.