A playful verse narrative of the joys and perils of a family fishing trip. In her poetic debut for primary graders, Wissinger tells the sweet domestic tale of a much-anticipated family outing from the viewpoints of young Sam, sister Lucy and Dad. Sam eagerly looks forward to fishing solo with his father--"It'll be like playing catch or / painting the garage. / Just Dad and me. / Fishing"--when younger sis Lucy horns in and threatens to ruin the fun. First, Lucy disturbs the contents of Sam's tackle box, then renders Sam despondent when her singing helps her catch a handful of fish even before Sam has caught one. But the trip vastly improves for Sam when he lands a sizable catfish, leading Lucy to gush with pride for him. The resolution to this muted sibling-rivalry plot is reached via a number of verse forms, from the kid-friendly acrostic, haiku and concrete poem to the purposefully silly double dactyl, a form so complex Wissinger admits her example here follows only in "spirit." Alongside the poems, Cordell's light yet expressive illustrations neatly capture the day's shifting mood. Perhaps in a nod to teachers, Wissinger tacks on a note on writing poetry, adding definitions of literary terms and verse forms in language too sophisticated for many in the work's intended audience. Appendix aside, this tender, well-crafted sibling story should hook many readers. (bibliography) (Verse fiction. 5-9)

From the author of Caldecott Honor Book Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet Book (2006), comes this picture book that uses numbers as a vehicle for presenting striking images and bits of information about animals living in oceans and along shorelines. A typical page features a large picture representing a number from 1 to 10, with each numeral made up of all or part of a sea creature's body. The pages also list the animals' common and scientific names, class, habitat, region, threats, and status. The large pictures are bold black-and-white images on blue pages or blue-and-white ones on black. Appended pages present further information on the mentioned animals, threats to the world's oceans as well as a list of organizations and a bibliography of recommended reading. Given the book's "numbers 1-to-10" concept, picture-book format, vis-a-vis its relatively high reading level, the audience is an open question, but perhaps creative teachers will find the answer.

This cautionary counting book features dramatically stylized sea creatures--many threatened or endangered--using only three contrasting colors: black, blue, and white. The pages show a large numeral from one to ten configured from a sea creature, with accompanying scientific information, augmented by end matter. This handsome, useful book is for an older audience than the format would suggest. Reading list, websites.

Gr 3-5 Using animal-shaped numbers from 1 to 10 and back again, McLimans introduces various marine creatures and their survival status. An African penguin, sea lamprey, tiger tail sea horse, and blue-ringed octopus are among the featured species. The text boxes accompanying each entry are not offset as distinctly as they were in the author's Gone Wild (Walker, 2006), so viewers are not sure where to look first. The boxes include the class to which each marine animal belongs, its habitat, aquatic region, threats, and status ("vulnerable," "endangered," and "critically endangered"), but the terms are not defined. Between the count up and count down is a spread of "Ocean Facts by the Numbers," which presents various statistics in the power of 10. For example, "Less than 1 percent of water on Earth is freshwater," "Plastic waste kills up to 1 million seabirds every year," and "About 1 billion people live in coastal urban centers, and the resulting overdevelopment threatens almost 50 percent of the world's coastal habitats." The black silhouetted numbers are sinuous and compelling in this unique and imaginative description of the dangers facing ocean life today. Frances E. Millhouser, formerly at Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA