cover image The Pout-Pout Fish in the Big-Big Dark

The Pout-Pout Fish in the Big-Big Dark

Deborah Diesen, illus. by Dan Hanna, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-374-30798-1

In this sequel to The Pout-Pout Fish, Mr. Fish promises Ms. Clam that he will retrieve her lost pearl, but as he swims closer to the dark sea bottom, "his heart flit-fluttered." With Miss Shimmer's help, however, he may find the pearl—and his inner courage. With colorful seascapes and bright-eyed ocean characters, Hanna gives this spirited tale light doses of humor ("Rest stop!" reads a neon sign on an anglerfish's lure), as Diesen delivers a gentle moral: "The ocean is wide,/ And the ocean is deep,/ But friends help friends—/ That's a promise we keep." Ages 2–5. (Aug.)