Swallow the Leader

An orange fish carrying a flag leads a chain of 10 fish, who follow its every move. "Follow the leader/ to coral caves./ Snap like a crab./ Ride on the waves," writes Smith (Arctic White), as eight additional fish (and a shark) show up. When fish #1 stops for a snack, the other fish follow suit, eating each other one by one. Sherry's (Turtle Island) fish are in the wide-eyed, cartoony school of his previous books, but he gives them a rich aquatic environment to explore, assembled from cut-paper shapes and mottled watercolor backdrops. A happy ending caps this cheeky underwater adventure. Ages 4-7. Author's agent: Ronnie Ann Herman, Herman Agency. Illustrator's agent: Teresa Kietlinski, Prospect Agency. (Sept.)

K-Gr 2--Through the ocean, fish after fish begins to play follow the leader. But when the line gets to 10, they all decide to play a new game: swallow the leader. Counting down from 10 to one, each fish is swallowed by the fish behind it until Shark has swallowed them all. No worries, though. Shark burps, and all of the fish come tumbling out to play their game again. This is a fun counting book with rhyming text that details the marine adventures as the fish add new members to their group. The illustrations are a mixture of traditional Sherry-style drawings done on multicolored papers that are sometimes solid and other times textured. Other details are added in a collage fashion, including seaweed and puffer fishes. VERDICT Readers will enjoy listening to the story and counting up and down as fish are added and swallowed. As the shark quips, "Delish!"--Paige Garrison, Augusta Richmond County Library System, GA