FISH ON A DISH!

A trio of peppy penguins has a surprisingly hard time catching a fish for dinner.

Pip and Pickle and Percy are all mighty hungry. When they spot a fish through a hole in the ice (represented by a die-cut hole in the page), they decide to give chase. But the fish is elusive, and the penguins find themselves tangled in all kinds of snags. Pickle gets stuck in the porthole of a sunken ship; Percy and Pip are waylaid and tickled by a friendly octopus. When they extricate themselves, they are hungrier than ever and continue to pursue the fish, which has returned to its school on the other side of the waving green stems of seaweed. Foldout pages on both left and right reveal what the penguins swim into: an enormous shark!! Or more accurately, all the little fish arranged Swimmy-style in the shape of an enormous shark. All that the penguins can see in the dark depths is that faux predator, and that’s enough to keep the fish safe for another day. For the penguins, seaweed stew will have to do. Tickle's chief attraction is what the book’s cover promises to be "peekaboo fun": flaps and holes in pages that reveal multiple surprises. Although these do not always work as well looking backward as looking forward, they should still delight pre-readers. The rhyming text is appropriately minimal.

Bouncy underwater fun.