PreS-Gr 2— Tabor really does a number on readers with this one, electing as the main character a species of catfish that swims upside down. But that's later. Ursula is minding her own business, being pink and whiskery, as catfish are, and loving the colors of the water, which are quite beautiful in teals and mint greens, with splashes of turquoise and coral. Ursula is content until another fish asks why she's swimming upside down. This flips her world. When she tries swimming "right way up," she sends herself out of the water and on to the very dangerous shore. Luckily, a helpful bat kindly rolls her into the water and suggests that maybe the way Ursula does it is right for her after all. Of course this is a lesson about identity, marching to the beat of a different drum, and general differences, but it's also about buzzkill and how someone's unkind comment, no matter how innocently uttered, can change the day. The pacing is perfect and the typeface treatment breaks all the rules, with sentences that tell readers (or read-alouders) when to turn the book in the other direction to facilitate viewing the words. Who could not love Ursula? To find out she is based on a real species is a fact no child will forget. VERDICT Funny, real, and makes a delicious point without spelling it out; this book is a charmer.— Kimberly Olson Fakih

Ursula is disconcerted to realize she's living her life upside down-or is she?Ursula, a sherbet-pink catfish, has a good life. "Weeds waved from above," "Rays of sun shimmered from below," and Ursula has "scrumptious buggy buffets" to feast upon. Some might wonder if there's been a printing mistake: Other characters' speech bubbles are upside down, and the sun peeks from the bottom of the page. But as readers orient (or disorient?) themselves, they won't be able to help but share Ursula's perspective, both artistically and emotionally. After Ursula encounters a fish who questions her unusual position, she's plagued by existential angst, and the book reorients, with the sky at the top of the page and water at the bottom. Confused, Ursula flops onto a beach, which, as Tabor so drolly puts it, "Is no place for a catfish upside down or otherwise." Thankfully, Vern the bat flaps over to rescue her. Ursula's overjoyed to meet another creature who lives life unconventionally aligned. But are they the ones upside down? "Says who?" questions Vern. And, "just like that," Ursula's world-and the book-flips again. While her shift to appreciating life outside the norm feels abrupt, readers will be buoyed alongside Ursula. Created with loose, bubbly watercolors and digital collage in jaunty tones of aqua and teal, her watery world is inviting. An author's note discusses the real-life upside-down catfish, found in the Congo River basin.A welcome reminder to embrace your view of the world. (Picture book. 4-9)