As a little boy watches the creatures in an aquarium, he imagines what it would be like to be a fish and swim around a coral reef. The impressive collage illustrations combine pieces of torn, cut, and sometimes painted papers with found objects and bits of fabric. Bold forms and striking color combinations give the double-page spreads a vibrant sense of place and motion, as each turn of the page finds the fish in a different environment, defined by background colors and the forms of different sea creatures. Particularly impressive is the otherworldly scene featuring jellyfish, with their opacity emphasized by overlapping tissue papers. With just a few, well-chosen words on each page, this picture book lends itself well to preschool story hours and early classroom units on undersea life. A typical, straightforward line of text for a double-page spread reads, Dolphins would glide above. The final, wordless collage illustration pulls back for a longer look at a number of animals previously introduced; a visual key for identifying all the sea life follows. A well-designed picture book, as simple and pleasing as a sea star. (Reviewed February 1, 2000)

Spare prose relates what a boy imagines he'd see if he were a fish swimming in a coral reef. The text is intermittently artful ("cloud of jellyfish," "sea of stars"), but the graphic collages of painted papers, fabric buttons, and such are more striking. A labeled double-page illustration of the coral reef, general facts about some of the creatures, and a note on coral reefs are appended.

PreS-Gr 3-A trip to an aquarium leads a young boy to wonder, "If I were a fish-" and his imagination takes over. Barner's clever use of perspective shows the bright orange clownfish (the boy's alter ego) changing in size depending on which sea creatures are nearby. Readers can follow it through its colorful underwater world on a coral reef, swimming past dolphins, sea turtles, octopus, squid, jellyfish, sea horses, shrimps, crabs, sea anemone, and starfish. The rhythmic text expresses the action. Double-page spreads can easily be viewed from a distance. The clever, textured collage illustrations, made with commercial and handmade papers, foil, beads, ribbon, antique buttons, fabric, cork, and pastels, warrant a closer look. A diorama with a numbered key identifies the creatures of the reef, and a spread that includes brief facts about them and information about coral reefs is appended. This engaging picture book with its simple text and bright illustrations offers a creative introduction to the natural world of the sea.-Margaret Rhoades, Orange County Library System, Orlando, FL Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.