UGLY FISH

Adding to the most recent spate of seemingly innocuous illustrated tales with sudden macabre twists, this deals just deserts to an aggressive aquarium fish—depicted in Magoon’s simple, spacious illustrations with spiky teeth and a squarish, pea-green body—who chases and then eats every finny newcomer until an extra large arrival provides apt turnabout. Intended as a lesson for bullies, it’s more likely to provide a morsel of vicarious satisfaction for their victims; still, for Gorey, Dahl and Belloc fans, shelve it next to such other unsettling titles as Jean Willis’s Tadpole’s Promise (2005), illus by Tony Ross, or Whatever (2005), Bee Williams’s darker remake of Maurice Sendak’s Pierre. (Picture book. 6-8)