An intriguing and effective look at an unfamiliar world, well suited for reading aloud.
The carcass of a whale is a gift to the sea.
When a whale dies, its body sinks to the ocean floor, but that’s not the end of its useful life. For the next 50 years, it will continue to provide nourishment to a series of deep-sea creatures. Stewart takes her readers 5,000 feet down into the East Pacific Ocean to watch the procession of scavengers who will feast on the remains of a 70,000-pound gray whale—and sometimes each other. First come the hagfish and the sleeper sharks. Later there will be zombie worms and the squat lobsters who eat them. Some microbes “form thick, colorful mats that spread across the bones,” while other microbes live inside the mussels and tubeworms that are also attracted to the carcass. It’s a thriving new sea floor ecosystem. The exemplary backmatter tells us that scientists have identified over 500 species that are in some way connected to a whale fall. The author has chosen examples with names—“snubnose eelpouts,” “sea pigs,” “blob sculpin”—that delight. The smoothly written text is set directly on evocative blue-toned underwater scenes that make good use of light and texture. The backmatter’s added facts about the 22 animals featured will inform science-inclined older readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An intriguing and effective look at an unfamiliar world, well suited for reading aloud. (more information on whale falls, selected sources, resources for further exploration) (Informational picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-38060-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House Studio
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
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 gleeful game for budding naturalists.
Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.
In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781728271170
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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