A Bale of Turtles

In an amusing introduction to collective nouns, Clancey uses concise rhymes of describe animal groups on land, in water, and in the air. Rothermel’s skills at rendering naturalistic scenes are apparent, yet her paintings also offer hints of visual playfulness: in one scene, dolphins and jellyfish swim within view of an underwater one-room schoolhouse (“A lone jellyfish floats in the sea/ And she is soon joined by a smack./ A school of dolphins swims nearby,/ They already have their pack”). Elsewhere, strings of ponies play hopscotch in a field, a “serious business of ferrets” wears tycoon-worthy top hats, and moles and rabbits rest in underground burrows, tucked cozily in the layered contours of the ground. The tall trim size is at odds with the horizontal orientation of the images, the artwork squeezed into single pages with large margins above and below, but the notes of whimsy and majesty Rothermel includes (a gaggle of geese, a rafter of turkeys, and a paddling of ducks reside in a pond ablaze with reflected autumn foliage) should hold readers’ attention. Ages 4–8. (BookLife)