Good eating: The short life of krill by Matt Lilley, illustrated by Dan Tavis

 Dan Tavis is the illustrator of Jacquie Sewell's Whale Fall Cafe, an informational title with a very similar vibe to Good Eating. The endpages here are covered with a horde of orange and green krill and we open the book to stark black backgrounds and glowing orange eggs.

The egg sinks, miles and miles down, until finally it hatches into a sphere that grows into a pale orange sphere with poky arms and bits sticking out called a nauplius. Lilley and Tavis take the reader through metamorphosis after metamorphosis, as the krill grows new shells, breaks out, and changes into different forms, finally achieving a mouth, stomach, and eventually, after lots of eating and another transformation, it becomes a furcilia, the last stage before it is a real, honest-to-goodness krill! Not a shrimp or a bug, but a creature all its own and still growing, growing, growing and eating, eating, eating!

Readers will explore the unique qualities of the millions and millions (how about krillions?) of krill, their part in the ecosystem, and ending with an exciting swoop by a whale, which our particular little krill escapes, so they can go on eating for another day!

Back matter gives more details about the life cycles of krill, facts about krill, and some additional resources.

Verdict: This reminded me a little of Pagoo, a favorite story from my childhood, but it's a much more scientific approach, even though Tavis' cartoon-style illustrations add a humorous and fictional touch. Informative and funny, this one will interest school-age readers with interest in ocean life.

ISBN: 9780884488675; Published January 2022 by Tilbury House; Borrowed from another library in my consortium