Rainbow Fish and His Friends: Copycat Fish

A new school year has started, and Rainbow Fish is having problems with Tug, a younger fish, who copies everything he does. With the help of Miss Cuttle, Rainbow Fish learns a lesson in patience, and Tug learns to appreciate his own abilities.

Grade 1-3-Donovan remains true to Marcus Pfister's writing and illustrative styles in these further adventures of the characters, but Rainbow Fish retains his sparkly fins only on the covers. The stories take place in a classroom setting in the sea, and all teach a lesson. In Copycat, a small fish imitates Rainbow Fish because he admires him. Rainbow Fish is annoyed until the little fish explains that his copying is a compliment. Fishy Story has a message about telling tall tales, and the consequence of no one believing the truth. Lost at Sea involves a school trip where Rainbow Fish loses his young buddy and worries the teacher. These books may be useful because of their discussion potential, but the advanced sentence structure and vocabulary will be too difficult for most beginning readers to tackle on their own.
Sharon R. Pearce, Geronimo Public School, OK
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Rainbow Fish & Friends kicks off with a quartet of titles by Gail Donovan, illus. by David Austin Clar Studio, that introduce the students in Miss Cuttle's underwater class. Tug mimics everything Rainbow Fish does in The Copycat Fish and then gets separated from the class on a field trip in Lost at Sea. Angel challenges Puffer's exaggerated stories in A Fishy Story; and no one can agree on what makes something a treasure in Hidden Treasures. Each book features a holographic foil-stamped cover (though no glitter appears inside) plus a sheet of full-color holographic foil stickers.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.