In this companion book to In the Wild and On the Farm, poetry and art combine to create memorable portraits, for the very young, of twenty ocean creatures. The full-spread woodcut-and-watercolor illustrations are both striking and simple. Tone of the very short poems varies nicely: most are lightly humorous while others are evocative and almost majestic. Reel this one in; it's a keeper.

Starred Review Repeating the formula of smooth verse and dynamic woodblock illustrations that worked so well in On the Farm (2008) and In the Wild (2010), Elliott and Meade's newest collaboration is a playful exploration of life in the sea. From the tiny sea horse "dainty as a wish," to the clown fish, which is "not an enemy / of anemone," to the blue whale who sings "of shipwrecked sailors down below," 20 creatures are celebrated with rhymes that accentuate their quirks and charms. The poems are tailor-made for reading aloud, with vocabulary sophisticated enough to challenge emerging readers while also engaging them in the fun of wordplay. ("Anemones / Gotta lotta zing! / By which I mean, / watch out! / They sting.") It's amazing how the woodblock illustrations convey motion so beautifully, capturing the swell of the ocean and the graceful arches of the creatures. The art is well served by the book's slightly oversize format, allowing the larger animals in particular the space to impress. While back matter would have nicely extended the information presented in the poems, this is nonetheless a magnificent merger of words and images. It will appeal not only to poetry fans but also those children who marvel over the mysteries of the deep.

This third pairing of Elliott's reductive poems and Meade's bold woodcut-and-watercolor illustrations dives deep to explore sea creatures, from tiny shrimp to the mighty blue whale. Elliott's poems are short and pithy, often combining elegant metaphor and child-friendly diction. "Five fingers, / like a hand, / the starfish shines / in a sky of sand." He doesn't shy from big words that expand children's imaginations and vocabularies: An octopus is "an eight-armed apparition." Humorous touches pleasantly conjure Douglas Florian's poetry. The puffer fish is "A trickster. / A clown. / A magician. / A buffoon. / One minute / she's a fish; / the next, / she's a balloon." Meade's pictures combine appropriately watery washes with black-inked woodcuts. She conjures the "before" and "after" capabilities of said puffer fish, and her Moray eel undulates fearsomely. Not every spread is completely successful. "The Clown Fish" riffs on inter-species symbiosis, but Elliott stumbles with the possessive phrase "its enemies"--inviting confusion as to whether anemone stings its own enemies, or the clown fish's. Meade's shark, possibly a great white, prominently sports stylized throat grooves that more resemble several species of whale. This mix of clever poems, handsome art and well-chosen typography, despite a few minor flaws, will function equally well for bedtime sharing and early-learning settings. (Picture book/poetry. 3-6)

Gr 1-4 In this collection, readers are treated to short, descriptive, yet elegant poems about the different life forms that are found in the sea. Starting with the sea horse and ending with the blue whale, each poem is but a glimpse of the creature it describes. A menacing tone is found in "The Shark": "The fin,/the skin,/the brutal grin&30;/The terror/of the dark within," and a playful tone emerges in "The Clown Fish": "Is not an enemy/of anemone;/in fact, it is anemone's maid,/for which anemone/stings its enemies./And that's how friends are made." Accompanying the verse on each spread are bold woodblock and watercolor illustrations that successfully capture the atmosphere and movement of the ocean. From the maw of the moray eel to the detail in the coral, the art perfectly matches the tone of the poetry. This work could easily be shared in its entirety as a read-aloud, and can be paired with the author's In the Wild (2010) and On the Farm (2008, both Candlewick) as well as Joyce Sidman's Swirl by Swirl (Houghton Harcourt, 2011). Stacy Dillon, LREI, New York City