ONE DAY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DEEP BLUE SEA

Confronting a toothy shark, a young pearl diver displays courage, cleverness, and a compelling counteroffensive.

A brown-skinned child in a red wetsuit, her hair in two puffs, leaps from a boat wearing a mask and a diving tube. Reaching the “very bitty bottom of the deep blue sea,” she spies a pearl for her net—just as a sizable shark surges up. His extremely broad grin is hungry, not friendly. But the plucky girl strikes a deal with him: She’ll provide the shark with an alternative seafood dinner or else be his main course. The tasting menu of options includes “a squid with her kid,” frilly jellyfish, puffer fish, and a stingray. Each proves violently indigestible and is promptly ejected, with assorted sound effects: “OUCH! AAH! ICK! SPIT! BLAH!” As in Bernstrom’s One Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree, illustrated by Brendan Wenzel (2016), regurgitation reigns. In a desperate bid, the girl convinces the shark to try a turtle, whose shell shatters his teeth. Deal over, he goes to “CHOMP!” her, but she blocks his mouth with her net and bears the pearl triumphantly away, safely rejoining her parent in the boat. This neon cartoon version of a reef, all soft edges, looks like a rainbow garden, until we see its dangerous inhabitants, pastel but perilous. Goofy details such as the shark’s ridiculous pink tongue support the upbeat emphasis on the rollicking rhythm and rhymes and the vibrant undersea setting.

A celebration of bravery against a big bully—though picky eaters might sympathize with the shark.