A Children's Book Review : "A Fish Out of Water"(Children's book review of Helen Palmer's "A Fish Out of Water", written by Helena, mother of 5 and grandmother of 2.) This whimsical children’s tale of a boy who feeds his goldfish too much (is there anyone who had a goldfish as a child who doesn’t remember the admonition, “don’t feed it too much”?!) is a modern-day classic. I read "A Fish Out of Water" to all five of my kids from time to time, starting in the mid-80s and most recently in January, 2009 to my 10-year-old, at her request. Even after all these years and all those readings, I still enjoy the story myself. My five children (four girls and a boy, some of whom are now in their 20’s) each remember this story as one of their favourites, and the book itself bears mute testimony to how often it was chosen, having lost its cover a number of years ago.
In the story, the narrator is a boy who purchases a goldfish from the pet store and is told by the pet shop owner, to “never feed him a lot.” As so often happens, the little speck of fish food recommended just doesn’t seem like very much to the child and he just has to feed the fish more. Otto, the fish, soon outgrows his bowl and the boy has to move him into something larger than a mere fishbowl. The reader is taken along for the ride as Otto is continually moved from larger container to another yet larger.
Short sentences and lots of pictures also make this children’s book an excellent choice for the child who is just learning to read, and obviously the publishers thought so too as it was published under the Beginner Books banner of Random House, along with other modern-day children’s classics such as Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat .
© Helena Long, January, 2009, Children's Book Review of
A Fish out of Water
, by Helen Palmer, illustrated by P. D. Eastman, © 1961, Random House
|
