SWALLOW THE LEADER

Rhyming sea creatures count to 10 and back again.

“1 Fish // 2 Fish / Follow the leader. / Do as I do. / Splash when I’m splashing, / then I’ll follow you.” A fish parade starts with one and picks up one more, with each iteration performing a different action, often mimicry. They snap like crabs. They blow like a whale. They flap like a ray and puff like a blowfish. “7 Fish / Follow the leader / into the dark. / Hush when I’m quiet. / Hide from a shark.” They trot like a sea horse and hurdle a turtle…then, at 10 fish, the front fish gets hungry and swallows a shrimp. The second-place fish swallows the leader! Nine fish become eight become seven and so on. The final fish is a shark: “1 Fish / ‘Delish!’ ” However, after one massive burp, there are 10 fish again! Time for another game with a new leader. Smith’s undersea romp is an enjoyable rhyme that, while introducing different denizens of the briny deep, could easily be adapted to a finger play or body rhyme at storytime. Sherry’s collages place cutouts on watery, watercolor backgrounds; the main-character fish have googly eyes and goofy smiles, and they are boldly colored and outlined in black. Some final art not seen.

Nothing fishy here: it’s a delish addition to storytime collections.