The Horn Book Guide

SCIENCE

Harris, Trudy

Pattern Fish

40 pp. | Lerner/Millbrook | August, 2000 | Library ISBN 0-7613-1712-0 $$20.90

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Anne Canevari Green. Harris's rhythmic, loosely rhyming text describes six creatures moving through the sea, until a shark shows up and scares them away. More important than the slight story line, though, are the verbal and pictorial patterns throughout: in each two-page cartoon illustration, every element from the decorative frame to the background characters shares the same pattern (AB, ABB, etc.). An endnote provides further explanation.

Reviewer: Erica L. Stahler