Welcome to whalebone mansion

Gr 1--3--Just in time for Halloween, this odd mash-up imagines that a whale fall, the body of a deceased whale, is a spooky haunted house with ghoulish, slimy, hungry, bone-eating animals. Although sidebars provide accurate information about a whale fall, an ecosystem that nurtures other animals, the main text maintains the spooky and heavily fictionalized narration, e.g., it's largely narrated by two small fish that could never swim to the deep water where a whale fall settles. There are vampire squid, bone-eating zombie worms, and ghoulish goblin sharks mentioned, with sidebars and back matter offering links to other information. As part of a Halloween read-aloud, the book offers the slime, fangs, and ghoulish content children like, but those interested in learning more about whale falls have Melissa Stewart's Whale Fall: Exploring an Ocean-Floor Ecosystem and Lynn Brunelle's Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale. VERDICT The topic is worth exploring, but whale falls are not haunted and the elegance of how they function within the natural world and ecosystem is anything but spooky.--Myra Zarnowski

What waits in the shadows of a whale fall? A huge skeleton becomes a haunted house in this spooky description of what happens after a whale dies and sinks to the bottom of the ocean. A pair of colorful fish venture within, encountering a variety of dangerous creatures: hagfish slime, a goblin shark, a vampire squid, a female anglerfish dangling her light bait, octopuses, and even zombie worms. But wait, there's more: "pinching crustaceans" and, finally, creatures such as clams that help finish off the bones entirely. Slate's eerie exploration covers the same ground as Melissa Stewart'sWhale Fall (2023), but with more atmosphere and less depth. James' digitally created illustrations support the sense of menace. Unusual hues and strange sharp shapes against a black background suggest the darkness and otherworldliness of the ocean's midnight zone (between 3,000 and 13,000 feet below the surface; once a dead cetacean reaches this level, it's considered a whale fall). The text operates at two levels. Simply phrased sentences follow the fish through the decaying bones, with language that reads aloud well: "Dart through ribs! Duck beneath the backbones!" Text in a more expository voice adds information about the creatures and the threats they pose to the tiny explorers. This would be an entertaining, enlightening selection for a Halloween storytime; it will also nicely round out existing collections of whale fall books. An appropriately spooky dive into a mysterious world. (author's note, information on the midnight zone and whale falls, resources, bibliography, QR code linking to a website about a whale fall site)(Informational picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.