Little Fish Lost - Hardcover

Van Laan, Nancy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689813317 ISBN 13: 9780689813313

Publisher: Atheneum/Anne Schwartz Books, 1998

Synopsis

Young children are invited to help Little Fish, who is searching for his mother, examine page after page of a busy underwater story, in which the missing mother can be found hiding on every spread.

About this title

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-K?A vibrant aquatic tale. As Little Fish searches for his mother, he swims here and there in his African water hole, exploring a world filled with "Striped fish,/freckled fish,/whiskered fish,/puffy fish." At the surface he spies feathered, furry, and scaly mothers and their babies. He even encounters a scary big fish (just like Leo Lionni's Swimmy did), but his mother is nowhere to be found. Clever observers will spot her eye or tail or jaunty polka dots in every spread but will still rejoice with Little Fish when mother and son reunite. While the plot is eminently predictable, words and pictures work together to create an original whole. Van Laan's text curves and dives across the page, reinforcing Little Fish's journey. The language is simple, repetitive, and strongly rhythmic; the unfamiliar names of some creatures (jocana, genet, etc.) and use of onomatopoeia are intriguing and infectious. The assortment of African wildlife on the surface is fascinating and the simple shapes and vivid colors in the torn- and painted-paper collages are used to excellent effect on each well-constructed double-page spread. Little Fish is endearingly chunky and surprisingly expressive considering his very basic features. With its buoyant language and winsome illustrations, this story will charm young listeners.?Carol Ann Wilson, Westfield Memorial Library, NJ
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

When an orange and yellow polka-dotted fish gets separated from his mother, his search for her takes him on a tour of underwater flora and fauna. He spies fellow fish of every stripe, a scarlet crawfish whose claws go "snappa-snappa," and other animal mothers and babies cavorting at the water's edge. Astute children will find that little fish's mother appears in each spread, conducting her own exhaustive and ultimately successful search. Van Laan's (Possum Come a Knockin') rhyming text, rendered in roller-coaster typography, leads the audience on the hunt with an infectious percussive beat: "At the edge of the pond, tippa-taw, prowled Genet [a fox]. When she drank, lippa lap, Little Fish's tail went SLAP!" Conteh-Morgan's (My Farm) childlike illustrations sizzle; with exuberant splashes of hot pastel paint on ripped paper, she's created a beguilingly exotic world. Yet in fashioning a territory, unfamiliar to young readers, for lost Little Fish's anxious search, author and artist make the reunion between parent and child all the more triumphant. Ages 2-7.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum/Anne Schwartz Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0689813317
• ISBN 13: 9780689813313
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Conteh-Morgan Jane