FISH & SOUP

With the help of Mephisto's Magic Grow Fish Food, Young Henry Higginbotham turns his pet fish into the guests of honor at Lady Chalmers' party, where they introduce the others to a fabulous new dance.

A husband-and-wife team debuts with this idiosyncratic tale of two overgrown goldfish that crash a society party. After young Henry Higginbotham doses his fish Glenda and George with Mephisto's Magic Grow Food, they expand to human scale and decide to attend a costume ball. Attired in formalwear fin-agled from the senior Higginbothams, Glenda and George arrive in time for dinner, where they commit several faux pas-like any fish out of water. Luckily, the guests mistake their oddities for foreign customs and follow suit. All weird things must come to an end, however, and the magic formula begins to lose its effect. Susan Sully's goofy premise is interpreted to somewhat creepy effect in the illustrations: gray Glenda and George each resemble the Creature from the Black Lagoon in fancy dress. In the artist's murky palette, chalky black, green, blue and yellow are applied over what appears to be a golden-orange ground-more sink than swim. Ages 4-8.
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