cover image Fish on a Walk

Fish on a Walk

Eva Muggenthaler. Enchanted Lion (Consortium, dist.), $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-59270-116-2

Bugs gaze at a fish couple as they stroll arm-in-arm, a family of wild boars sets off on a train journey, and a dragon with a fishing pole catches his own tail in German artist Muggenthaler’s exploration of contrasts. Her spreads are crammed with visual information, thickly painted in a palette of soft greens and earth tones, each bearing a set of opposing adjectives like “Usual–Unusual,” “Same–Different,” and “Tricky–Truthful.” In a spread labeled “Happy–Sad,” a downpour has turned a dog’s umbrella inside out. He’s drenched and miserable, but the ducks and frogs swimming in the rain that’s gathered in his umbrella grin broadly (they’ve even got a little palm tree). The pictures are not always so easy to decode, though. In “Jealous–Accepting,” mountain goats push a sled uphill, while other goats toboggan down. Sure, the laboring mountain goats are jealous, but who’s accepting? And what’s the meaning of the green spectacles that appear in every spread? Nonetheless, there’s lots to talk about in this saucy, offbeat book; it’s the kind children will return to. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)