By Neil Sharpson
A picture book that poses as a friendly nature guide, then spends every page warning you, straight-faced, to never trust a fish.
The book starts out as a calm tour of the animal kingdom, then reaches fish and quietly loses its mind. Fish, the narrator explains, cannot be trusted. They live underwater where you can't see what they're up to. Some are as big as a bus. And those 'schools' they keep going to? Nobody knows what's being taught. Every claim comes with a completely straight face, and the calmer it stays, the funnier it gets.
The whole joke lives in the deadpan, so a grown-up who reads it dead serious does half the work. That's a good fit if you like performing a book out loud. Dan Santat's bright, expressive art lands every punchline, and for a child who calls books boring, comedy this fast is an easy way in. Mine wanted it again the same night. It also picked up a stack of starred reviews and awards.