A sound examination of a surprisingly loud undersea world.
Listen to an underwater cacophony.
With this playful account of the sounds revealed by recent hydrophone research, the author of When a Tree Falls (2025) leaves the forest to visit the ocean, inviting younger audiences to eavesdrop on fish. Pendreigh’s rhyming couplets never falter; from time to time, she repeats the refrain “It’s NOISY down below.” Starting with whale and dolphin sounds, she quickly dives into less familiar territory, describing the noises made by a remarkable variety of marine life, including shellfish. She speculates on what they might be saying (“MY LUNCH!” “SHARK?”) and explains that underwater, “sound travels faster, and farther…, / quicker than smell and deeper than light.” She reveals how these creatures create sound and uses frequent onomatopoeia (“Pearlfish THRUM. / Angelfish CHIRP”). Melrose’s digital illustrations include recognizable depictions of the fish, from clownfish to herring, as well as their sounds, lettered neatly nearby. Careful observers will notice a snapping shrimp crackling and popping on nearly every spread. This creature provides the climax; its astonishingly loud sound is accompanied by “blast balls that STUN / ZAP-FLASH-BUBBLES. Hot as the SUN!” The repetition of sound words makes this a pleasure to use with fledgling readers. The spreads will show well to a small group, and the backmatter adds useful information on hydrophone research, how fish hear, and snapping shrimp and the other animals mentioned.
A sound examination of a surprisingly loud undersea world. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9781464218965
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on.
Sharpson offers so-fish-ticated readers a heads up about the true terror of the seas.
The title says it all. Our unseen narrator is just fine with other animals: mammals. Reptiles. Even birds. But fish? Don’t trust them! First off, the rules always seem to change with fish. Some live in fresh water; some reside in salt water. Some have gills, while others have lungs. You can never see what they’re up to, since they hang out underwater, and they’re always eating those poor, innocent crabs. Soon, the narrator introduces readers to Jeff, a vacant-eyed yellow fish—but don’t be fooled! Jeff’s “the craftiest fish of all.” All fish are, apparently, hellbent on world domination, the narrator warns. “DON’T TRUST FISH!” Finally, at the tail end, we get a sly glimpse of our unreliable narrator. Readers needn’t be ichthyologists to appreciate Sharpson’s meticulous comic timing. (“Ships always sink at sea. They never sink on land. Isn’t that strange?”) His delightful text, filled to the brim with jokes that read aloud brilliantly, pairs perfectly with Santat’s art, which shifts between extreme realism and goofy hilarity. He also fills the book with his own clever gags (such as an image of Gilligan’s Island’s S.S. Minnow going down and a bottle of sauce labeled “Surly Chik’n Srir’racha’r”).
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780593616673
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
A lyrical and educational look at the water cycle.
Through many types of weather and the different seasons, water tells readers about its many forms.
“Sometimes I’m the rain cloud / and sometimes I’m the rain.” Water can make rainbows and can appear to be different colors. Water is a waterfall, a wave, an ocean swell, a frozen pond, the snow on your nose, a cloud, frost, a comet, a part of you. Throughout, Paterson’s rhyming verses evoke images of their own: “Soon the summer sun is back / and warms me with its rays. / I rise in rumbling thunderheads / like castles in the haze,” though at times word order seems to have been chosen for rhyme rather than meaning (“In fall I sink into a fog / and blanket chilly fields, / with pumpkins touched by morning frost / the harvest season yields”). Backmatter includes a diagram of the water cycle that introduces and describes each step with solid vocabulary, including “Collection” as a step in the process; “The Science Behind the Poetry,” which unpacks some of the poetic language and phrases; some water activities and explorations; conservation tips; and a list of other books from the publisher about water. Paterson’s full- and double-page–spread illustrations are just as magical as his verse, showing water in its many forms from afar and close up. Few people appear on his pages, but the vast majority of those are people of color.
A lyrical and educational look at the water cycle. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-58469-615-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dawn Publications
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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