Louis the Fish (Reading Rainbow Books)

Maurice Sendak greeted the publication of the first book by this unique author-and-artist team with an astonishing review in The New York Times Book Review, which began: "Sid and Sol is a wonder--a picture book that heralds a hopeful, healthy flicker of life in what is becoming a creatively exhausted genre. The magic rests in teh seamless bond of Arthur Yorinks's and Richard Egielski's deft and exciting collaboration." Sendak concluded his review with an enthusiastic "Welcom, Mr. Yorinks and Mr. Egielski!" Now Louis the Fish, their second picture book, not only fulfills the promise of the first, but amply surpasses it.
Louis is a butcher. He has a nice shop on Flatbush, with steady customers. He's "always friendly, always helpful, a wonderful guy." But Louis is not happy. He hates meat!
All his life he's been surrounded by meat. His grandfather was a butcher. His father was a butcher. His whole childhood, even his birthdays, revolved aournd meat. As a boy he tried anythign to escape--even a job after school cleaning fishtanks.
But that doesn't last long. Louis soon has to take over his parents' butcher shop. He grows ill. Business begins to fail. All seems lost. Until on night, in fitful sleep, after uneasy dreams, Louis is changed in a profound and startling way and begins a happy new life.

Arthur Yorinks has written and directed for opera, theater, dance, film, and radio and is the author of over thirty-five acclaimed and award-winning books, including Hey, Al, a children’s book, which earned the Caldecott Medal in 1987. From the age of 6, Yorinks studied to be a classical pianist, under former Juilliard professor Robert Bedford. At 17, veering from a potential profession as a classical musician, Yorinks began over four decades of writing and working in the performing arts. In the field of opera, Yorinks was Philip Glass’s librettist for the operas The Juniper Tree and The Fall of the House of Usher.

Through his forty years of picture-book making, he has teamed up with many famed illustrators including Maurice Sendak, William Steig, Mort Drucker, David Small, and Richard Egielski. His book, Mommy?, was a New York Times bestseller. Mr. Yorinks lives in New York City and continues to write and direct.