Review by Booklist Review
Young readers interested in the ocean and its animals will enjoy this third title in the Do Animals Animate? series. Imaginations will come to life as the authors pose silly but logical questions that might occur to a young child: "Do seahorses wear saddles?" "Do pilot whales hang out in airports?" "Do mussels work out at the gym?" "Do sea lions roar?" A page turn offers the answers ("No!"), along with actual facts about how these incredible creatures survive in their ocean home. Delightful wordplay, laugh-out-loud questions, and interesting information combine perfectly with expressive, comical, and accurate illustrations depicting creatures such as lampreys, trumpet fish, and, of course, jellyfish. Extra info about the ocean and the featured animals is included along with further discussion about the threats they are facing. A fun and accessible introduction to some amazing sea creatures, sure to get young readers interested in oceans and their preservation.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3--Playful questions are proposed for a series of sea creatures, focusing on wordplay, and then followed by a contrasting fact. Illustrations feature animals in a silly scenario ("Do trumpet fish play in marching bands?") followed by depictions of the animals in their natural environment. Although the science content is interesting for readers up to grade three, the brief text and soft, colorful drawings make this title better suited for younger readers. The repeated pattern of a silly question followed by a reliable "No!" and succinct, easily digestible information would be ideal for reading out loud in a storytime or classroom setting. The "What's in the Sea" section at the end of the book features more detailed information and a photograph of each of the animals mentioned in the text. A glossary, further reading list, and resources are all missing. VERDICT This whimsical look at sea creatures is a light but charming science read-aloud for younger kids.--Savannah Kitchens, Parnell Memorial Library, Montevallo, AL
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Playful questions and factual answers introduce 12 sea creatures.Following up on Do Doodlebugs Doodle? (2018), their investigation of insects, this mother-and-daughter authorial pair again team up with illustrator Shi, this time to speculate about sea dwellers. Posing questions, including the one in the title, they ask about pilot whales, sea lions, trumpet fish, sea horses, lampreys, clown fish, football fish, skates, hammerhead sharks, starfish, and mussels. Each question is illustrated on a page or spread; a page turn reveals the answer, usually a resounding "No!" The jokes are clever: Lamprey eels aren't "plugged in," but they do connect by "attaching their mouths to a fish's body," and so forth. Except for the opening and closing spreads, the layout also reveals the difference between the jokey question, set above a rectangle with rounded corners that contains a painted interpretation, and the serious answer, set on a full-bleed image. The creatures are often anthropomorphized as part of the visual joke and shown more naturally on the page with the facts. Some images include human children; a pale-skinned child with brown hair in a double bun and a different brown-haired child with darker skin appear more than once. Noting that their examples include mammals, fish, and invertebrates, the authors provide a paragraph of further information about each of these animals in the backmatter (where they clarify that starfish are more properly called sea stars).Wordplay that is entertaining and mildly educational. (Informational picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
