When I picked up this book again, I knew it was my choice for the week.
It turns out that this was the perfect book for first graders especially. They were finishing up a study of biomes. Since the setting of the book is a pond, it tied in wonderfully.
I introduced Fish is Fish by asking the readers about friends. "Do you have a best friend? Does he or she tell you stories? Do YOU tell your friend stories?" (The story is about the friendship between a frog and a fish.) Hands went up and readers now had a reason to listen.
As I began to read the book aloud, I became very involved in the reading of the words -- and reading them just so, while my readers were completely wrapped up in the illustrations. Once again I saw how reading a book aloud to someone helps me understand it in a much deeper way. In some ways, it was almost like I was reading the story for the first time -- but, of course, I wasn't. Something about expressing it fully to someone else -- and not just reading it to myself -- unfolded all of its possibilities.
With my repeated readings to kindergarten and first grade, I understood that for me, this book was about change and acceptance. Tadpole became a Frog, and Minnow was not happy about this. But though he lamented the change in his friend, he didn't realize that he was growing, too, turning into Fish. And as Frog goes on to travel the world above the water, and returns to tell Fish of the amazing things he saw (drawn gloriously by Lionni in fish fashion), Fish acts out on his longing to do the same. Realizing the impossibility of this, Fish understands --instead -- that where he is, and who he is, is not only perfectly okay, but wonderful, too.
There is so much to this book. (More than I can write here, and more that I think about each time I read the book.) The illustrations are fanciful and imaginative (bringing an instant "Wow!" from any audience), and the story is very much a page-turner (something I pointed out to our readers). Everything about it is inviting. (No doubt, you'll be inspired as we were to draw fish and turn them into other creatures.)
I should also point out a memorable line in this book: (As a reader, I chose to see it optimistically.)
"Frogs are frogs, and fish is fish, and that's that." -- Leo Lionni, Fish is Fish (Knopf Books, 1970).