Review Detail

Over in the Mangroves introduces a few creatures of high interest that can be found in the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest. The lyrical text about the animals that flit and frolic and find protection in the home created by the mangroves is soothing and underlines the importance of the mangroves to the animals' survival. Each page features a mama or papa, and the babies keep growing in number, making it great for a counting book as well. The illustrations are saturated in color and have a cartoon roundness that makes the animals extra adorable and intriguing.
The one detail that stuck out to me was referring to the bees in terms of a mama out with her little bees waggling outside the hive. Since they have a queen and the babies wouldn’t be the ones collecting honey, it is factually inaccurate, and while it can be argued that this isn’t supposed to be a nonfiction text, for readers who do know better, the inaccuracy is disruptive, and the ones that don’t know better have now been introduced to a misconception. The author says many other animals also live in the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest, so it would have been better to use one that fit in the text structure the author created.
Overall, the story is engaging and will appeal to young readers and hopefully inspire them to want to protect places of nature like this one.