Over and Under the Wetland
by Kate Messner; illus. by Christopher Silas Neal
Primary    Chronicle    56 pp.
8/24    9781797210872    $18.99

Messner and Neal’s seventh contribution to their long-running series (most recently Over and Under the Canyon, rev. 11/21) follows a child and nature-savvy grandmother into a cypress swamp. The boardwalk trail takes them “through curtains of green in the afternoon sun.” Messner’s lyrical prose captures how the environment stimulates all the senses: spiderwebs “tickle my face,” an unseen animal “rustles the brush below,” and the muggy air “clings.” As the humans observe nature above ground, the text and illustrations sink below the swamp’s surface to observe plants and animals in the “secret kingdom of frog song and insects, of wading birds and water snakes.” Their sounds (churrrr-churrr, ratatatatat) are emphasized in larger-size text. Not all the animals in the pictures are named, giving readers the opportunity to consult the back matter for field guide–like information. Neal’s illustrations beautifully portray the swamp and its inhabitants from multiple over and under perspectives, sometimes positioned soaring high over the humans with an egret searching for prey or down into the grass with a family of raccoons, and sometimes using horizontal compositions, much like cross sections, that show above and below simultaneously. As the sun sets, nocturnal sounds “sing us goodbye.” Also appended with an author’s note and a bibliography.

From the "September/October 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.