Dory Story
Kindergarten-Grade 2-The inviting cover features a life-jacketed boy standing in a red dory surrounded by a summer-blue sky and deep-blue sea, encircled by ominous dorsal fins. Disobeying parental admonitions to never go out in the boat alone, the narrator rows out into the peaceful bay to learn more about ocean life. What follows is an account of the aquatic food web. The child observes killer whales eating tuna eating bluefish eating mackerels eating sand lances eating shrimp eating plankton. When he spies the killer whales, he fears he may soon be part of the food chain himself. A fleeing tuna capsizes the dory, and the boy heroically swims through the ravenous sea. As he reaches a rock, the narrative is interrupted by his mother's voice. The last spread shows him safe and sound in a bubble bath with toy dory and fish in hand. "Danny, you tell the best stories when you're in the bathtub! You should write a book." Clever as Pallotta's idea is, the textual flow does not succeed as well as the luminous acrylic paintings do. Biedrzycki's striking art will guarantee this book an audience. The representational style with its pleasing variety of perspectives has a decided edge toward the surreal. Children are sure to lust after their own red dories.Sue Sherif, Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library, AKCopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.