(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Flora McDonnell. Presented in the same appealing, hand-sized format as The Mermaid's Purse, these twenty-eight poems evoke members of the animal kingdom in language so deft that the profundity of the ideas suggested may elude the casual reader. But the full-bleed art, layered in black, white, and shades of gray, sets the tone. There's humor aplenty and clever wordplay, there is also, at times, the menace of tooth and claw.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2003

(2) YA Illustrated by Flora McDonnell. There's a bleak undercurrent running through this cycle of twenty-eight brief poems concerning creatures of the sea, and some jolting tonal contrasts. McDonnell's bold drafting and impressionistic brush strokes capture the wildness of the sea and the poet's dark humor with sensitivity and panache. The hand-sized book is unusually appealing, with each poem set modestly on a black-and-white painting.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2000