Into The A, B, Sea: An Ocean Alphabet Book

Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0439096960, Hardcover)

"Swim the ocean waves with me / and dive into the A, B, Sea / where Anemones sting, and Barnacles cling / where Crabs crawl in / and Dolphins spin." You get the idea. This is a rhyming alphabet book starring sea creatures--and it is truly, truly wonderful. Steve Jenkins (Animal Dads, Elephants Swim) uses paper collage to great effect--capturing textures and colors of marine animals and plants with astonishing skill. Even the rock-clinging barnacles are alive with movement, which is saying a lot. When his humpbacks leap, they really leap, and when his octopuses hide, they duck into torn black rough-edged paper that looks uncannily like octo-ink. Equally refreshing is the accuracy of the illustrations and creature identification--we were happy to see that the now-discouraged, somewhat misleading term starfish was replaced by sea star, and jellyfish by jellies. And thankfully, science writer and sea lover Deborah Lee Rose's rhyming couplets are not overdone or underdone, but just right.

Because this is, after all, an alphabet book, we're offered more than the usual entrées on the underwater menu, such as Umbrellamouths and Viperfish and "zillions of Zooplankton." (The depiction of milling zooplankton, by the way, is pure cut-paper genius.) A friendly, engaging glossary tells young readers a little more about the creatures that swim and splash throughout the pages. This excellent picture book makes us want to linger where manatees lumber and narwhals slumber, and your favorite future marine biologist will, too. (Preschool to age 6) --Karin Snelson