SWIM! SWIM!

A jaunty, optimistic but lonely fish needs a friend. He swims about in his bowl enthusiastically trying to engage the attention of pebbles and a diver statue. Even the bubbles, with whom he tries to converse in their language, just float to the surface and disappear. In a nice twist, it is the cat that plays matchmaker when he introduces Lerch, to whom he gives the name Lunch, to a lady fish named Dinah, also known as Dinner. The new friends hold fins and swim happily ever after… maybe. Ostensibly written and illustrated by Lerch himself, the work is formatted in exaggerated comic-book style with bright, heavily outlined, large-scale cartoons rendered in ink and Photoshop. Lerch displays every emotion with outsized, over-the-top facial expressions. Extremely limited vocabulary placed in large word balloons and frequently repeated makes it appealing and accessible to the youngest readers. The fun continues with the biographical information on the jacket, where Lerch gives some credit to his caretaker, James Proimos. Good solid nonsense. (Picture book. 3-8)