StoryWorlds: Nature

Wildlife scenes unfold in a series of lovely, wordless tableaus as Hegbrook introduces a diverse sampling of animals and ecosystems through images of courtship, growth, and predation. Some illustrations fill entire pages or spreads (a pair of baleen whales circle around a cloud of krill in a dark blue ocean) while others combine starkly different animals on pages divided into rectangular panels (one page juxtaposes praying mantises, baboons, llamas, and a tarantula defending itself against a predator). Readers can interpret each picture for themselves, but Hegbrook also supplies descriptions of the scenes in a closing section (“an Arctic hare’s fur changes color with the seasons”) for those seeking identification of the animals and their actions. A visually poetic look at webs of life on land, in the air, and underwater. All ages. (Sept.)