From Publishers Weekly
Arnosky (
Beachcombing: Exploring the Seashore) looks at the littlest inhabitants of the Southern marshland, while still exposing the tooth-and-claw nature of life in the wild. "There are babies in the bayou with black and yellow tails," he writes, introducing, in turn, alligators, raccoons ("with rings around their tails"), turtles and ducklings. Arnosky portrays all the babies under the watchful eyes of their mothers ("Mother alligator guards her babies well. She lets no one come near"). But he also makes it clear this is an ecosystem, where just about every creature is some other creature's dinner. When the raccoon mother teaches her adorable babies "how to dig for tasty turtle eggs," their meal occupies one side of a spread, while more fortunate turtle babies emerge from eggs in another area of the swamp. Young alligators regard the fuzzy ducklings as potential dinner, and may be in hot pursuit as the book closes. And yet, this book never feels grim. Quite the contrary: the incantatory prose and luxurious, color-saturated artwork—reminiscent of vintage Golden Books—invites readers to immerse themselves in a mysterious watery landscape, and watch life unfold. Ages 3-up.
(Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
PreSchool-K—This is a wonderful resource to use with children to illuminate the ways of nature; it's economical and rhythmic in text, and beautifully and clearly illustrated. Arnosky uses simple language and a repeated refrain to describe the animals that live in a lush Southern environment: "There are babies in the bayou with black and yellow tails" (alligators), "…with rings around their tails" (raccoons), "…with shells upon their backs" (turtles), and "…with webs between their toes" (ducks). As the gentle text guides readers through the swamp, each spread limns its scene in transparent green, yellow, and blue acrylics, framed with dark branches, grasses, and silhouetted birds and other small creatures. Use this vibrant book as a read-aloud to introduce an intriguing habitat, or pair it with Kathi Appelt's
Bayou Lullaby (HarperCollins, 1995) for a satisfying storytime sojourn.—
Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
