WHEN YOU SEE US

In poetic language, a chorus of creepy-crawlies invite closer looks at life beneath the surface of ponds and streams.

“Some of us live in rivers: / under riffle-wrinkles or eddy-whirls,” murmur the larval mayflies, dragonflies, mosquitoes, and other insects that spend most or all of their lives underwater, “or in warm mid-water sun shafts. / You might see us then.” Some are beautiful, Hocker writes, others “seriously creepy!” In any case, Kohli definitely goes for the latter—at least at first—with a series of leggy, segmented, exactly detailed predators observed in extreme close-up views hatching and growing, ferociously eating and being eaten, in watery natural settings. At last comes a final metamorphosis that sends many creatures flitting gracefully through the air on glassy wings past a marveling, brown-skinned young observer. “When you see us,” they conclude, “think of what we were / and what we became. / Think of what you were / and what you can become.” Young readers should study the author’s closing key to the multispecies insect cast and follow her practical and explicit instructions for observing these common creatures in ways that will leave them and their natural habitats only minimally disturbed; they’ll likewise find opportunities aplenty to marvel and reflect.

An immersive dip into an enticing world as close as the nearest natural body of fresh water.