WALTER THE WILY WALLEYE

A clever fish narrates this playful, picture-book ode to the “game” of fishing.

Walter the Wily Walleye lives in a lake, “waiting for you to catch me, a game I play called fishing.” He describes his own talents—including his great night vision, which helps him catch minnows—as well as offering readers advice on how to fish. Although Walter acknowledges that he loves to hide from anyone who’s fishing, he prefers it when children try to catch him, because he likes their laughter. Debut author Allen’s smoothly rhyming prose plays with the idea of schools of fish being places of learning where pupils are taught not to take food from strangers; however, this contradicts Walter’s request for children to bring him minnows or worms. The rhymes also introduce new vocabulary words for emerging readers (“elusive,” “wily”). Alberts creates images of realistic-looking fish with human characteristics; in one dynamic image, Walter grabs onto a child’s line with his fin, tricking the boy into thinking Walter is hooked. Pale-skinned, mostly male human anglers appear, and some of the fish feature overdone lipstick and eyeshadow as gender indicators. Allen also delicately avoids revealing what would happen to Walter if he were actually hooked.

Parents hoping to take their kids on fishing trips will find some fun, rhyming encouragement here.