Our comic shop got seriously shorted today, leaving half the books on a dock somewhere in UPS land... so reviews will be slightly delayed. One book did come, though, that I couldn't wait to review. So here it is:
Aquaman's Guide to the Oceans by Jackie Gaff, DK Readers Level 4, Hardcover (a softcover version is also available): I expect quality out of DK (Dorling Kindersley), and I was not disappointed. I haven't read every section of this book yet, but I'll be reading it more carefully later. This book has a wonderful dual nature. The sidebars introduce Aquaman and his fictional world, while the main text carefully describes reality. The text is rich and detailed, despite being written for children who have just learned to read, and there is a lot of extra information in both the main text and in captions for the many non-comic book images. The Aquaman characters and story generally tie-in somehow with the main text, and there are several "guest" appearances of non-Aquaman characters like Batman, Plastic Man, and the Penguin. Aquaman's history goes back into the Peter David days, includes bits of Larsen's awful run, and continues up into the current series. All the artwork appears to be from various DC Comics, mostly from the Aquaman title, and the artists are listed (in tiny print) on the title page. There's a glossary and index in the back. The book itself is a bit smaller than a comic book in size, and thicker than your average prestige comic. After reading this, I definitely want to get the other books in the series: "Batman's Guide to Crime and Detection", "Superman's Guide to the Universe", and "Wonder Woman's Book of Myths". Yeah, they are for kids. But they're still fun. 
Still to review: Avengers/JLA, Green Lantern... and if the rest of the books come: Arrowsmith, Usagi Yojimbo, and JLA.
