A coho salmon named Sumi travels from her birth creek to the ocean and eventually back. The bones of the story are simple enough, but Salmon Creek is a rare information book: one that engages head and heart.

The partnership of B.C. author Annette LeBox (Wild Bog Tea) and Ontario illustrator Karen Reczuch (Morning on the Lake) celebrates the magic of the coho salmon’s life cycle without sacrificing accuracy. Using words – sometimes grand, sometimes gentle – in loosely poetic form, LeBox first engages the reader’s curiosity as Sumi, not yet hatched, is “pressed against the curve of her egg,” listening to the song her salmon mother sings. After she has hatched, Sumi, now the size of a “pine needle,” is “scared and alone.” Reczuch’s painting of a tiny, wide-eyed baby salmon with her egg sac still under her belly, hiding under a stone, shows Sumi’s fishy realism while endearing her to readers as a character.

Soon the tempo of the story picks up as, in true heroic form, Sumi battles danger and foe. Reczuch’s illustrations keep pace, memorably translating the lyrical, adventurous text into hypnotic shapes, stimulating colours, and haunting landscapes. Sumi’s cycle is soon done, her song over.

At the back is a well-presented information section, containing explanations of words such as “milt” (fish semen), a very useful life cycle chart, and more. From beginning to end, Salmon Creek will have readers – pardon the pun – hooked.