Aliens! Becoming a Jellyfish by Grace Hansen

You don't have to rocket to outer space (or even visit Roswell, New Mexico) to see alien creatures. Take a trip to your nearest aquarium or just pack your swimsuit and goggles and snorkel around in some ocean shallows and you may see that truly outlandish but numerous sea alien, the common and uncommon jellyfish.

About as different from the human form as a creature can be, these transparent, sometimes colored, sometimes almost as clear as glass, tentacled creatures equipped with weapons that can zap are fascinating forms of sealife. Beginning as eggs, they hatch as larva and float free in the sea until they find a suitable rock or similar surface on which to attach and turn into colorless polyps, mostly invisible, to grow and combine with others to form a column of strobila, looking like a stack of open colored umbrellas, which gradually break loose and float off solo.

THE POLYP IS NOW AN EPHYRA, AN IMMATURE JELLYFISH.

It floats free in the sea as it grows.

AT LAST IT BECOMES A MATURE JELLYFISH....

IT MOVES BY PUSHING WATER OUT OF ITS BODY. IT EATS PLANTS, FISH, AND EVEN CRABS!

It's a fascinating group of weird and sometimes surprisingly lovely sea creatures that can pack quite a zap, depending on how we interact with them, as described in Grace Hansen's Becoming a Jellyfish (Changing Animals) (Abdo Publishing). One of the standouts in the publisher's Changing Animals series, this one provides stunning full-page color photographs on almost all pages and minimal "just the facts" information about this amazing alien life form among us. The author also offers backmatter than includes More Facts and Glossary. Minimal descriptive text and eye-catching photographs that extend the text make this one great for building the knowledge base for preschoolers and references for classroom units and assignments in the primary grades.

Little Dog Lost! Perdu by Richard Jones

THE SKY WAS DARK, THE WIND HOWLED, AND SO DID PERDU.

A LITTLE LOST DOG, ALL ALONE, NOTHING TO CALL HIS OWN BUT AN OLD RED SCARF.

Someone had once loved little Perdu, lovingly tying a bright red scarf around his neck. But now the scarf is wet and so is he. A leaf blows by, seeming to know where it is going, so Perdu follows as it tumbles away. The rain ends and the sun rises, and Perdu finds himself on the outskirts of a city, where even the stream he has been following turns away from him. Just beginning to become busy, the city is filled with faceless figures rushing in all directions. Perdu seeks a familiar face, but finds none. Some see him, but only say "SHOO."

HIS LITTLE LEGS ACHED. HE HAD TO FIND SOMETHING TO EAT.

He slips into a restaurant and pulls at a tablecloth spread with delicious-smelling food, which suddenly generates a mob of people, all seeming to be running toward him!

HE COWERED. SCARED, HE GROWLED BACK.

Perdu runs away from the angry voices, losing even his red scarf. He curls up sadly, alone, in a little ball of misery in the park. And then he hears a gentle voice from a little girl who held... his scarf.

"IS THIS YOURS?" SHE ASKED SOFTLY.

She kneels and reties his red scarf. And Perdu knows he is lost and unloved no more, in Richard Jones' story of a little dog found, Perdu (Peachtree Publishing, 2020).

Jones' sweet and touching narration is paired with soft watercolor illustrations in which the little homeless dog is also symbolic of that loneliness in the crowd, the loss of belonging, which applies to people as well as animals. The rescue of little Perdu (whose name, not surprisingly, means "lost" in French) stands out among the world of lost dog stories out there, a beautifully-paced read aloud for young children.