Fourteen Ways of Looking at Jellyfish

Description: "An imaginative triumph that will mesmerize readers" --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

With dozens of major awards between them, a revered poet and a versatile artist pool their mastery to sing the praises of an undersea wonder.

A graceful bundle of nerves three times as ancient as the dinosaurs, the jellyfish is no fish but a spineless invertebrate without brain, heart, blood, or bones. Inside glass tanks in crowded aquariums, jellies hold visitors rapt with their slow-motion water ballet. Most of the world's nearly four thousand species emit an otherworldly light, glowing red, yellow, violet, or blue in the underwater dark. Fifty species boast deadly venom, including pink meanies with boa-like tentacles, box jellies with two-dozen eyes apiece, and deadliest of all, cubozoans the size of human thumbnails. Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Carole Boston Weatherford brings poetry and playfulness to natural science as she shares her fascination with a singular creature. Fourteen wildly divergent poems--by turns dramatic and serene--pulse with life. From spreads of shimmering bioluminescence to graphic panels, stylish artwork blends poetry with science and fact with folklore and myth to form the ideal introduction to the "immortal" and mysterious jellyfish.

Review Quotes: The seamless integration of varied artistic approaches--from naturalistic painting to technical illustration--makes each spread feel distinct yet cohesive; this thought-provoking marriage of art and science celebrates both knowledge and mystery. An imaginative triumph that will mesmerize readers as thoroughly as the creatures it portrays.
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

[A] wonder-inspiring tribute to these aquatic animals and their "otherworldly light."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A necessary purchase, this glorious collaboration between author and illustrator brings the world of jellyfish to unforgettable life.
--School Library Journal (starred review)

Weatherford turns her poetic gaze upon the pulsing, glowing, stinging members of the subphylum Medusozoa, offering readers a kaleidoscopic view of many of the "nearly four thousand jellyfish species" that exist. . . . Ibatoulline is an impressively versatile illustrator, and he demonstrates his talents here, styling each spread individually. . . . [A] dazzling collaboration.
--The Horn Book (starred review)

With typical virtuosity, Ibatoulline gives each poem's illustration a different look, ranging from melodramatic pop art to dreamy surrealism, from isolated specimens drawn in clinical detail to a tumultuous Japanese woodblock-style fantasy. Young audiences will be as captivated by the visual dialogue as by the poet's informative, whimsical, wondering reflections.
--Booklist (starred review)

[The] overall effect is one of awed wonder. . . .
--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books