Little Fish – Book Review

Book Review
Little Fish
By Emily Rand
Expected publication: September 17, 2019

Son's Review
(Age: 4)
"This is my new favorite book because it is a star book. It's about a little orange goby fish that's lost. It makes me happy...My favorite part is when the fish arrives home. It's good to read it at the beach because it's a sea book. I'd like to learn about a grouper."





Mom's Review

Short and simple, with a depth that makes it worth reading over and over. 

While there are only a few lines per page and only a few pages at all (see T opening the book to a carousel), Little Fish is not babyish and Emily Rand wastes neither words nor space. When the goby fish is separated from his companion, he encounters several other sea creatures, including a grouper, kelp, and a cave. Little Fish lays a foundation for understanding ocean life with the goby's journey back to his companion. Readers will learn about the dangers that confront small fish as well as the varied plant life. The bright images give a vivid impression of the color world beneath the waves. 

But you could get ocean info anywhere. What sets this apart is the paper craft. Little Fish can be tied cover to cover such that it is a carousel. This invites exploration and play, not simply reading. After we'd read it, T decided to use it as the settings for a movie. He combined several fairytales and used different guys, moving them from page to page as he crafted his own prince vs. witch vs. pollution storyline. At one point, the superhero whale gets eaten by the shark (see below).

Little Fish is a delight.

Extra:
We watched this grouper video from National Geographic to see what one really looks like.

Why we chose this book:
You could think of us as (snobby?) pop-up book connoisseurs :) Our refined tastes balk at simple two-layer raised images. Nurtured from the outset with National Geographic action books that have numerous moving pieces and multiple layers of paper craft on each page, we* have come to demand nothing less than intricate, captivating paper engineering. If the pop-ups are cutting edge, we want a taste. You perhaps saw our review of Midnight Monsters, which you use to create shadow images that you read about. Well, here is another book that delights with its unique format. 

*T got my old Nat Geo books, so the exact same books introduced us both to pop-ups, but decades apart

A review copy was provided by Thames and Hudson in exchange for an honest review.