Aquarium

Newcomer Alonso’s wordless tale opens as a girl in a summer dress heads down a path to a nearby pond. The surrounding hills are drawn in simple lines, the grass stippled with pencil. The pond and its underwater world, by contrast, carry color and shadow, and teem with stylized, silkscreenlike plants and jumping fish. A tight close-up shows a plan taking shape inside the girl’s head; she imagines swimming with a school of fish. One vermilion fish leaps out of the water, and the girl takes it home, using an array of containers and hoses to create an exciting, multivessel habitat. (It’s the kind of elaborate, messy setup that parents might discourage; fortunately, no parents are around.) With the addition of an inflatable pool, the girl can splash with her fish. But when it leaps free, the girl realizes that it’s unhappy. Often, in stories like this, a parent persuades the child that wild creatures are happier where they belong. Alonso’s heroine realizes this on her own, and readers watch as she sets aside her happiness for the sake of a smaller creature. It’s a polished, thought-provoking debut. Ages 3–5. (Apr.)