BARRACUDA: Tiger of the Sea

A fall, like Sewer Sam (1980) in this series, from Jacobs' usual level, this describes the barracuda's life and life cycle in flat, easy-reading sentences and sentence fragments: ""The baby barracudas are growing. They are hungry and must eat. They begin to swim. They have big eyes. And sharp teeth. They catch tiny fish. Even other little barracudas."" The facing illustration here is a design-less, dimensionless scattering of stiff barracuda and leaf-like ""tiny fish,"" some of the latter dangling like limp tongues from the barracudas' mouths. One barracuda, suspended on the page, has its stomach notched between the jaws of another equally static specimen. Most of the pictures have fewer figures and less going on. All are dull. Perhaps some of the phenomena described--the little barracuda turning green and standing on its head in the grass to avoid detection by a predator, or the tiny goby swimming into the (same) grown barracuda's mouth to exchange dental service for food, will be enough to retain readers drawn by the barracuda's fierce reputation. Perhaps not.