★ 07/08/2024
In prose both graceful and suspenseful, Fleming (Mine!) introduces the “shy,/ swift/ small (for a whale)” narwhal, weaving scientific observation into gripping storytelling. Icy landscapes and naturalistic, watery blue aquatic scenes of whales and other marine life by So’oteh, making her picture book debut, add to the drama. Opening with a description of the mammal’s most distinctive feature—“a single/ twisting/ rod of ivory/ that sprouts from your upper left jaw”—lines describe the way male narwhals use their tusks for combat. Subsequent pages trace the rhythms of narwhal life, first in the winter as they dive for fish and surface to breathe, and next as summer migration to warmer southern seas draws hundreds, some with newborn calves. Returning north, a sudden freeze threatens the pod, whose members cannot breathe beneath the ice. And when they create a small hole to surface, they’re exposed to predators (“You are discovered!”), a moment captured from the narwhal’s underwater view as a polar bear puts an enormous paw into the breathing hole. Together, art and text make this species biography not merely a lesson but an adventure, too. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)