Book Buds Kidlit Reviews

The biggest book of the year?

I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean
by Kevin Sherry

Reviewed by Kelly Herold

This is my favorite picture book of the year so far. Why? Well, it's bold, funny, bright and it teaches (indirectly) a very important message: No matter how big, or smart, or great you are, there's always someone bigger, smarter, or greater than you.

Fortunately, Sherry conveys this anti-message with humor and visual brilliance. Our hero is a squid.  On the first page, he announces, "I'm a GIANT squid and I'm BIG."  He continues to compare himself to sea life he encounters--shrimp, clams, turtles, and fish among them. 

As we all know, however, bragging can get you into trouble.  And squid finds himself in
a bit of a pickle when swallowed by the actual biggest thing in the ocean.  Ever optimistic, however, squid glances at his fellow travelers and announces, "I'm the biggest thing in this Whale!"

Sherry's squid is irrepressible and you can't help cheering for him, even at the end.  Sherry's illustrations will thrill the young reader with their rich shades of blue and variety of sea life.  I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean is best suited for children ages two to seven. Don't miss this one.

Rating: *\*\*\*\

A mother-daughter-turtle thing

Turtle Summer: A Journal for my Daughter
by Mary Alice Munroe; photographs and illustrations by Barbara J. Bergwerf

Once upon a Florida summer, I got to see a sea turtle nest as the last little hatchlings were scurrying toward the water. My midnight stroll on a beach got me there just in time to see the last straggler hit the surf and vanish into the black waters. I spent the rest of the weekend exploring the shoreline, noting the nests cordoned off by wildlife officials, who posted signs with the dates and species and the usual warnings.

Reading bestselling novelist Monroe's personal account of her "turtle summer" in South Carolina with her school-age daughter brought back the wonder and giddiness I felt even as an adult. She gives us one nest's chronology, laid out to resemble a scrapbook, but with Monroe's descriptive prose and tender touch.

Bergwerf is no stranger to loggerhead turtles, the featured species, but her photography is better showcased here, with sharp close-ups of all kinds of sea critters and shore birds, but her snapshots of mother and daughter tending the nest are still artless and perfunctory. She also created charcoal sketches of local flora on flecked paper that adds a rustic touch and deepens our understanding of the area.

It's still a lovely composition, matching facts and fancy, science and story, that's well worth a vicarious visit to the idyllic isle off South Carolina, where a mother and daughter patrol the beach in the pre-dawn hours searching for loggerhead nests.

Rating: *\*\*\

A dolphin with a porpoise

Dizzy
by Stacy A. Nyikos; illustrated by Kary Lee

A few publishers have figured out my weakness for nature stories or those involving animals in their natural habitats. I've only ever lived in cities, where the wildlife happens indoors, and my natural habitat is pretty much confined to this desk. I enjoy a good jaunt outdoors if only vicariously via picture books.

One of the publishers I've adopted is Stonehorse, a newish upstart whose marine biology books blend scientific accuracy and captivating stories. Dizzy's the third effort for both publisher and author, which this time features a speedy, Pacific white-sided dolphin.

Not that I'd know any particular species of dolphin from a can of tuna, but Dizzy's a cheerful addition to the pantheon of loveable sea critters. If I'm reminded of the sharks in "Finding Nemo" who sneeringly dissed their cutesy rivals, it's only because middle age makes me cynical. I usually want to bite someone that smiley.

Fortunately, the whip-fast Dizzy gets a little less happy as he exhausts himself trying to catch up with a "fish herder" -- a sea lion who rounds up the catch of the day for the other carnivores. Along the way he learns a bit more about his friends' varied ocean habitats in cheery rhyming couplets.

This isn't one of those "and then evil humans messed everything up" story, so it feels almost a little too upbeat. A few toothy sharks would've helped. I might've liked to see Dizzy working at something more than his next meal, as Nyikos did so ably with an  earlier story about a small shark who saves the day from, well, evil humans.

Even so, kids love dolphins and we love kids, and books like this always whet the appetite for a trip to the aquarium. If you're in Chicago, catch Nyikos at the Shedd Aquarium's gift shop on May 26 from 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Rating: *\*\

Global Warming 101

Why are the Ice Caps Melting? The Dangers of Global Warming
by Anne Rockwell; illustrated by Paul Meisel

In Arctic Waters
by Laura Crawford; illustrated by Ben Hodson

The hubby brought home a bootleg copy of “An Inconvenient Truth” recently and it proved an unlikely hit with Seth. His rave review convinced his preschool teacher to rent it. “The ice melting is really silly!” is about as profound as he gets, so he’s probably qualified to serve on a presidential panel.

Unlike that documentary, these two books are specifically aimed at kids. They arrived on the same day from separate publishers; I don’t know if I would’ve thought to pair them otherwise.

In Arctic Waters deals solely with the arctic food chain from a hapless fish to an Inuit hunter using cumulative verses. Crawford weaves together facts on each creature into each rhyming stanza. We meet one after another, building suspense through repetition as we sweat it out for that poor fish.

Hodson also brings a naturalist's eye to animal movement and expression that steers clear of cutesy while anthropomorphising the creatures enough to make them more appealing to kids.

As with most Sylvan Dell titles, there's a section in the back with more facts and an activity. No, there's no global warming, but a few reads and your kid will get a sense of what we're losing when you hit him or her with Ice Caps.

Rating: *\*\

Sweet lemon (shark, that is)

Shelby

by Stacy A. Nyikos; illustrated by Shawn N. Sisneros

I was shy as a kid. Nobody ever believes me, but it still takes a deep breath before I summon the courage for new situations or meeting people. So Shelby's my kinda shark. She hides underwater among the roots while the fishies gambol and frolic above her. No sense scaring them away, right?

Then a mean, bad ol' fishing boat comes along and casts its nets. Who can save everyone? Why, somebody with multiple rows of sharp teeth, that's who!

We learn a bit about lemon sharks and root firmly for Shelby to come out of her, uh, shell. Sorry. Puns are a weakness of mine. Nyikos tells the story in rhyming couplets that are more workmanlike than poetic, with rhymes tending to the predictable: "tough ... enough" or "beast ... feast."

This is Nyikos’ and Sisneros’ second outing together; they collaborated on “Squirt” about a squid that loses its imagination to TV.

The Oklahoma-based publisher is pushing the book regionally, but it deserves a wider distribution, especially to those states that have mangrove swamps like those where Shelby lives. Though a story about bravery, I can see its use for teaching about marine ecology; end notes provide more info on sharks for the curious.

Rating: *\*\

The case for legalizing whale hunting

Abigale the Happy Whale

by Peter Farrelly; illustrated by Jamie Rama

I really do try to keep an open mind about celebrity authors. After all, they were smart enough to rise to the top in Hollywood, right?

So what am I to make of this flop by screenwriter Peter Farrelly, of "There's Something About Mary" and "Dumb and Dumber" fame that is shockingly unfunny. No potty humor, no semen site gags, no yuks at all, unless you count his numerous puns. But those provoke nervous laughter, the kind you emit from twitching lips before the meds take effect.

Which you'll need. Trust me.

See, Abigale is cheerful despite all the other humpback whales being sad. Come to find out they want to beach themselves to protest pollution. How inspiring. Hey, all you insufficiently liberal beachgoers, just watch us kill ourselves! En masse! Bet that will make you feel bad, huh?

How uplifting. Maybe I should follow up with a few obituaries or the crime blotter.

And now for a few puns. Pardon my ellipses ...

Clem the Clam ... was acting like a real dip ...

"What kind of chowderhead would do this?" The steamed clam snapped.

Abigale ... dug this shellfish ... Clem was so surprised, he clammed up.

I know you want more. There's the golfin' dolphin and Dr. Gus the Octopus and my personal favorite, Fred Doofish the Red Bluefish, who suffers from an enlarged liver from eating poisoned seaweed.

Never mind that he'd probably be yellow, or that I must explain -- again and again -- what a liver is to a four-year-old whose knowledge of human anatomy begins and ends with his pipi. Oh, semen jokes, where are you when I need you?

Back to our story, which ends on Santa Monica, California, beaches with the whales deciding to swallow all the lawn chairs, bowling pins, golf clubs and other household flotsam and spew it through their blow holes onto the beach.

There! Let it be someone else's problem! What a great lesson.

And just in case you didn't get that message beaten into your head with the dolphin's nine iron, the front flap says that half of Farrelly's take goes to Heal the Bay, which cleans up Santa Monica's shoreline. He should give the other half to me, plus a refund for the stronger eyeglass prescription I need now.

Rating: *\

SEA WEEK Colorful escapes

Octavia Octopus and Her Purple Ink Cloud

by Donna and Doreen Rathmell; illustrated by Connie McLennan

This silly octopus can't get her colors straight. She means to shoot purple ink to practice her getaways; instead, she spurts all the other colors of the rainbow. Her finny friends have no trouble hiding or camouflaging themselves. Fortunately, she gets her act together in time to escape a shark. Yipes!

Like most titles from Sylvan Dell, it's meant to be educational, hence the emphasis on learning colors and about sea life. The watercolors imitate the vivid hues of a coral reef, and end notes give additional information and creative exercises.

Rating: *\*\

SEA WEEK Message in a bottle

Dear Fish

by Chris Gall

Note to self: Do not write "snail mail" to actual snails.

Doing so might seem harmless enough, but when Peter Alan caps a perfect day at the beach by tossing a note to his finny friends, they come a-calling:

Where you live is pretty cool. You should come visit us someday. Plus my Mom makes good pies.

The next day finds catfish mowing a lawn, puffer fish as birthday ballons, and an octopus who gives new meaning to bad hair day. It's all in surreal good fun, but little Peter eventually has to disinvite his smelly, slimy visitors.

That's okay -- the story ends with a reciprocal invitation tucked into a conch shell.

Gall hand-engraved the images on clay-coated board, then digitized the color. The result feels straight out of old Art Deco posters, but in a more contemporary palette of autumn tones and ocean hues.

Watch for visual puns on every page: the sea horses at the rodeo, mice running from the catfish, etc. Even the end papers will keep you busy.

Rating: *\*\*\

SEA WEEK The porpoise-driven life

If a Dolphin Were a Fish

by Loran Wlodarski; illustrated by Laurie Allen Klein

Everybody loves dolphins. At least they should. They navigate by sonor and kick shark butt and eat sushi. That's one heckuva fish.

But wait, they're not fish at all. Nor is a dolphin an octopus or a sea turtle, as this book helpfully points out. Klein's whimsical drawings in colored pencils morph a dolphin named Delfina into several other animals including, quite amusingly, a pelican.

No-nonsense prose sets us straight: what dolphins eat, how they bear and raise their young, even why they're bald.

The end notes even explain why dolphins aren't really porpoises, and how they're both closely related to whales. I think this would be the perfect read before taking a kid to SeaWorld where, by the way, Klein works as the on-staff artist.

Rating: *\*\

SEA WEEK Sharks and serpents and sea monsters, oh my!

Sharks and Other Sea Monsters (Encyclopedia Prehistorica Series)

by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart

Talk about a book jumping out and biting you. You'll be checking your fingers for missing digits with this pop-up primer on marine dinosaurs and other underwater nasties.

Don't be fooled by the plain cover, which hides four fat inches of complex 3-D depictions of the ugliest, meanest critters ever to slither, scuttle or swim beneath prehistoric seas. They literally burst into view in rich, dazzling colors and minutely crafted paper.

Each page also features booklets tucked into the corners with yet more pop-ups and intriguing facts, whether on crocs, sharks and other modern monsters or yet more ancient icky-sauruses.

Tragically, I have to put this book away for a few years, since its paper wizardry is too intricate for little hands. An eye-popping battle between long-necked sea lizards of several species took a few minutes to untangle and tuck safely away. A skeletal Ichthyosaur nearly lost its tail getting refolded.

Nonetheless, this is the book to have to impress your budding marine biologists. Just have the harpoons handy.

Rating: *\*\*\*\