THE SEA HIDES A SEAHORSE

How seahorses quietly elude the many marine predators on the prowl.

Young readers may be excused for thinking that the hapless seahorse doesn’t stand a chance, with every turn of the page revealing yet another menace—from eels, parrotfish, and crabs to squid, turtles, jellyfish, and bluefin tuna—gliding by in search of a snack. As it turns out, though, the distinctively shaped little fish are good at hiding, and along the sandy bottoms and brightly hued reefs of Mikecz’s seascapes, they can be spotted lurking unobtrusively…changing colors to match their backgrounds, floating behind tufts of sea grass, and swimming amid schools of smaller fish while intertwining tails to mate and give birth to clouds of small fry. The titular refrain coils sinuously throughout the alliterative narrative (“An octopus undulates silently, / gliding and grasping with eight arms. / And the sea hides a seahorse…”). Behrman concludes with pages of facts about seahorses, as well as information on how to help them and where to go to see and to learn more about them. Because many wild species are endangered or in decline due to habitat destruction, she discourages keeping them as pets but does include leads to sources for farmed specimens.

A simple, sonorous introduction.