An Ambush of Tigers: A Wild Gathering of Collective Nouns

While several picture books have tackled collective nouns, Rosenthal and Jago’s collaboration stands out for the sheer inventiveness they bring to the subject. Rosenthal frames her rhymes as rhetorical questions that often make surprising (and wonderful) interspecies connections: “When a murder of crows/ leaves barely a trace,/ is a sleuth of bears/ hot on the case?” she writes as Jago pictures fedora-wearing bears snuffling around with magnifying glasses while crows flee, swirling past a luminous full moon. Witty delights abound as a shiver of sharks bundles up in winter knitwear and a bouquet of pheasants peers glumly out of a tall vase. Ages 5–9. Author’s agent: Karen Grencik, Red Fox Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Ronnie Herman, Herman Agency. (Apr.)