MOTHER'S DAY SPECIALS! SHOW ME MORE
Giles Andreae is the hugely successful, immensely talented author behind numerous award-winning children's books, including the bestselling Giraffes Can't Dance. He is also the creator of the incredibly popular Purple Ronnie poetry range. Giles lives in London. David Wojtowycz is a talented artist and designer. He divides his time between London and Berlin. Giles and David have collaborated on several bestselling picture book titles including Dinosaurs Galore!, Rumble in the Jungle, Commotion in the Ocean and The Lion Who Wanted to Love, which won the Children's Book Award in 1998.
The round glass of a submarine porthole provides a window through which the animals of the ocean can be spied upon in all their commotion. Crab, turtle, dolphin, jellyfish, shark, and more come under the scrutiny of Andreae, who gives each one a rhyming stanza or limerick that is often sing-song. Attributes of each creatures - a shark's big mouth, a dolphin's sounds, a swordfish's skewer - provide the subject matter, but the treatment is humorous, not scientific. The arms of the mother octopus enable her to tickle all of her children on their stomaches simultaneously; a crab's sideways movements turn him into a sneaky spy. The illustrations further anthropomorphize the undersea creatures, giving each one curly eyelashes and smiling faces. The only innovation here is a poem about barnacles written in tiny type on the underside of a blue whale, as if the words themselves are clinging to the giant. Otherwise, this British import is ordinary and often amateurish. (Kirkus Reviews)
