Even for a children’s book, “The Manatee’s Big Day” (Zona Tropical Press) is goofy. For the first few pages, Erin Van Rheenen’s animal adventure looks like a story of zoological teamwork: There’s a shark in the jungles of Tortuguero on Costa Rica's northern Caribbean coast, and the animals are all freaked out. Instead of fearing each other, the rival species band together against their common enemy.
