At Home in the Coral Reef

August 3, 1992
Esther Williams would have been right at home in these effulgent Technicolor watereolors that depict the many and varied denizens of the deep. Occupying most of their spreads, each of BrownWing's paintings is bordered by a vertical column of text, beneath which are spot illustrations of indigenous flora and fauna. Muzik's straightforward prose works nicely for the intended age range, using exclamatory sentences for exuberant emphasis (Quick, tiny polyps, hide!) and even employing a storyline of sorts-a planula, or baby coral, searches the reef's many nooks and crannies for a suitable home. And as it hunts, ellipses cleverly lure youngsters to the next page: The planula catches a current to. . . Though the ecological messages here may at first seem a bit heavy-handed, grown-ups should realize that it's never too early to impart such critical lessons. Ages 3-8.