Jeremiah Jellyfish Flies High

This book written and illustrated fantastically by John Fardell is a very close second, or almost joint first, to my favourite children's books I've read this year. The illustrations are detailed but not distracting from the story - full of characterful detail and gorgeous depth of attention to colour - plus speech bubbles, which add a comicky layer on top of the text narration! Anyway, it's about a jellyfish called Jeremiah who gets curious as to what it's like doing anything but drifting along with the rest of his family-shoal; he evades a small range of supposed dangers (the picture of the jellyfishermen & their evil contraption-boat is one of my fave pages in any kids' book), and eventually meets a man who works in the industry of rocket science. SPOILER ALERT the pair swap roles for a bit, with J.J. taking on the test-pilot entrepreneurial side of running the rocket-plane business while the CEO of actual company takes some time out to just drift, wetsuited up so the jellyfish-fam don't sting him. Eventually they both realise their original placements in the world were of a better long-term run than their freshly realized acted roles; and they switch back, but both are forever changed by their Freaky Friday style career swap. A genuinely great little children's book - with excellent morals about work, and a healthy respect for uglier smaller corners of marine biology.