Ursula Upside Down

PreS-Gr 2–Tabor really does a number on readers with this one, electing as the main character a species of catfish that swims upside down. But that’s later. Ursula is minding her own business, being pink and whiskery, as catfish are, and loving the colors of the water, which are quite beautiful in teals and mint greens, with splashes of turquoise and coral. Ursula is content until another fish asks why she’s swimming upside down. This flips her world. When she tries swimming “right way up,” she sends herself out of the water and on to the very dangerous shore. Luckily, a helpful bat kindly rolls her into the water and suggests that maybe the way Ursula does it is right for her after all. Of course this is a lesson about identity, marching to the beat of a different drum, and general differences, but it’s also about buzzkill and how someone’s unkind comment, no matter how innocently uttered, can change the day. The pacing is perfect and the typeface treatment breaks all the rules, with sentences that tell readers (or read-alouders) when to turn the book in the other direction to facilitate viewing the words. Who could not love Ursula? To find out she is based on a real species is a fact no child will forget.