Somefin in Common! Just Like Us! Fish by Bridget Heos

Humans live up in the air and fish live down in the water. We walk; they swim.

So how could we be anything alike? Well, did you know fish can be doting parents and good teammates? Or that they go to the spa, where they are pampered by other fish?

They use weapons to hunt and armor to protect themselves. Some fish even use lures to, well, go fishing!

Sure, some fish lay their eggs and swim away. But the daddy seahorse carries the eggs in his pouch, and even after the little ones hatch, they still nap and take refuge back inside their safe place. And cichlid parents keep their eggs inside their large mouths, and when the small fry hatch, they still pack themselves (like sardines in a can) inside when something scary cruises by.

And it's Ah! the Spa! for the toothy barracuda, who remains perfectly still so that a little swarm of wrasses can remove parasites from their scaly bodies. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and the little fish get lunch and protection for their work. In fact, if one happens to nip the big guy, the boss wrasse chases them away as if to say...

"What are you doing? That was one of our best customers!"

Some species are not so sanguine about their fellow fish. The angler fish sports his own fishing pole, with a fat, tasty-looking blob dangling to fool the gullible, and the stoplight loosejaw flashes red and green lights to lure prey to be his lunch.

Sometimes well-schooled, small fish find safety in numbers, swimming en masse to daze and confuse their predators. And some fish come with considerable offensive and defensive arms and armor: the warrior swordfish, the sawfish, the prickly porcupine fish, and the electric catfish come equipped like medieval warriors. Young halibut don't sport weapons, but the small fry know how to make the best of one neighborhood bully that nobody messes with--the jellyfish--hiding among its tentacles when a predator comes in sight. Nanna-nanna-boo boo! Can't catch me!

And for the salmon, there's no place like home, heading back to the old homeplace for the family reunion every year.

Bridget Heos' new entry in her nonfiction series, Just Like Us! Fish (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018) shows the many ways the fishes imitate people (or maybe we imitate them) to thrive under the sea. Artist Dave Clark has a lot of fun with his comic illustrations of fish making like humans, with plenty of visual humor on each double-page spread. Author Heos appends a handy glossary (Say What?), a bibliography, and a list of web articles for young piscine experts to polish up their science reports like pros.