Poor Little Guy by Elanna Allen- ADVISABLE

Allen, Elanna. Poor Little Guy, PICTURE BOOK. Dial Books for Young Readers, 2016. $16.99. One tiny little blowfish is always being stalked by the bigger fish in the ocean. When one octopus plays game after game with him, threatening to make him a meal, the tiny blowfish begins to get angry and finally blows up his tiny, spiky body. The octopus lets him swim away while he tends to his sore tongue. The blowfish goes along until he comes to his next adversary… a shark. The cover of this book is so inviting. Really, the graphics throughout are the best part of the book. The beginning of the story is wordless and you can really feel the waves and currents of the ocean. My only complaint is that it’s not like the little fish outsmarted the bigger ones. He just hurts them. And I get it, that’s a blowfish’s defense mechanism, but I think that showing that a little fish with big predators could have come out of things in a more witty way would have been much more satisfying for a children’s book. It would have gotten a higher rating from me. K-3, EL- ADVISABLE. Reviewed by Shay, School Librarian