LITTLE FISH

A reef in the round provides both home and hazards for a small orange goby.

Furnished with a ribbon to tie the covers back, Rand’s five-sided marine setting offers multilayered views of brightly colored coral in an array of cutout forms and thick fronds of waving greenery along with glimpses of jellyfish and other sea life. It seems an idyllic place for a very small golden fish…until the goby is left alone when a playmate is swept away in a shoal of other fish. It goes on after an encounter with a friendly sea turtle to hide first from a “grumpy grouper” and then, well: “In the vast and empty ocean, / where the water’s deep and dark, / some white and shiny teeth appear… / Quick, little fish! A SHARK!” In the final scene all is serene once again, as the goby’s playmate returns and the two fish play under the watchful gaze of the turtle and other larger, smiling denizens. It’s a lot of drama for such a compressed format, highlighted by a deliciously shivery shark with outsized teeth and an avid stare. Still, the other scenes are benign enough to allow even very young audiences to enjoy the frisson. The layering of the die-cut characters against their environment makes for pleasingly three-dimensional if rather fragile tableaux.

A dramatic and decorative marine miniadventure, best for those graduated from board books.