Barnacle is Bored, written by Jonathan Fenske, reviewed by Klaudia Janek

Barnacle is the main character and the facial expressions along with the words make it very clear that Barnacle is very bored. His life is the same every day. The routine does not change very much. He sits stuck to the pier taking the day and night as it comes. Barnacle envies some of the fish that swim by because they look like they are playing and having a lot of fun. It’s like an ocean party. Until a scary eel comes by and eats one of the fish. Barnacle decides his life is not so bad.

Straight Talk for Librarians: This book will appeal to Baby Shark fans and possibly even Octonaut fans because of the Barnacle. I guess it is slightly dark humor since the fish gets eaten by a predator, but the fish ends up being bored in the eels tummy. So, I guess he is not dead? It was a relief to me to not have to explain that. But my little reader sure did think Barnacle was funny. This book is a great buy for PreK - 2nd grade school library collections. It makes for a good read aloud. Kids will love it! The colors in the illustrations will remind you of the ocean. The pages are not cluttered, so they will appeal to readers who want to study the details of facial expressions. It would be a good book to put on an ocean book display or a summer themed one. There are lots of possibilities for sea-themed literacy crafts to go along with this story. I also think the text in the speech bubbles will be fun for emerging readers to repeat.