A Filth of Starlings: A Compilation of Bird and Aquatic Animal Group Names

Stylish, high-contrast digital graphics (mostly silhouettes) from a British design firm playfully portray collective nouns for various animals, while brief, lyrical passages describe each specimen's physical characteristics and behaviors. "A fever of stingrays" is sleekly envisioned as a white thermometer, in which a red ray's tail becomes the rising mercury. On another spread, a whale's tail becomes a professorial figure's mustache (he wears a graduation cap and glasses) for a "school of whales," and a tessellated design suggestive of Escher allows a "descent" of abstracted woodpeckers to become a staircase. It's a thoughtful and well-executed project, and readers should find the ways in which the names mimic and relate to their subjects illuminating. Available simultaneously: A Drove of Bullocks. Ages 7%E2%80%93up. (May)