Customer Reviews

Little Spotted Fish

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So I'm walking through my library the other day, having successfully located a couple fun children's books to read through, when my eye catches a cover I've never seen before. The book looks like nothing so much as a logical extension of that old Beatles movie, "Yellow Submarine". On its cover sita a bizarre rainbow colored fish with a mouth as wide as a cave and a ludicrously jutting jaw. Across from this fish leaps a little spotted fish with the face of a woman and rainbow colored water flowing from its tail. I stopped. I stared. And though I very rarely pick up picture books to read and review on a whim, I couldn't help it. I had to read through this book no matter what. The fact that it was written by Jane Yolen only clinched the deal.

As the tale tells us, there was once a young fisherlad who lived all by himself on an island. He had everything he could want (as attested by his orange coveralls and black & white suspenders) and he was well pleased with his fishing skills. One day, as he sat on the banks of a lake found deep in the woods, a mysterious boat called a coracle appeared out of nowhere. The lad hopped aboard and was immediately brought to a little spotted fish. After greeting him in a usual fishy matter (ala spitting water) the fish says to the boy:

"Dylan, Dylan, son of the wave,
The spotted fish thy life shall save".

Dylan (that's the lad's name, you see) doesn't quite know what to make of this, but he goes along with it just the same. Suddenly an uber-odd fish with a spectacularly jutting jaw approaches. At his feet, Dylan finds a magical rod. The rod defeats the fish and Dylan uses it afterwards to fish. However, the lad decides that it's too easy fishing with a magical fishing rod so he returns it to the spotted fish. Later, everything happens all over again. The coracle comes, the fish sings, and this time a magical net and two uber-odd fishies try to eat the boy. Again he defeats them, uses the net for a time, then decides to give it back to the spotted fish. Only the third time he jumps in the coracle the spotted fish spits out water "as red as blood" (yum!) and asked to be saved BY Dylan. Three fish appear and Dylan rescues the little one from the big nasties. They offer him wishes in exchange for her, but Dylan laughs and explains that he would wish for nothing, so they take off. Then the little fish sheds her silver scales (like the book "Rainbow Fish" but without the hokey message) and turns into a lovely girl. And they lived happily ever after.

In her author's note at the end, Yolen explains that "The Little Spotted Fish" is a combination of several classic folktales, poems, and what have you. As an original story, it's fine. To be honest, I could take or leave it. It's Friso Henstra's bizarre trippy illustrations that bring this book to life and caught my eye in the first place. This book was originally published in 1975, and as such it's a crazy creation. You half expect Blue Meanies to come barreling through this tale for all its psychedelic glory. Henstra carefully balances his black and white (pen and ink) spreads with rainbow infused crazy creations. Details like the spotted fish having the face of a woman give the book an almost mythological feel and tone. And of course there are those insane monster fish that serve as the villains of the piece. They so immense and frightening (enough so that I suspect I'll be enjoying some mighty fine nightmares for a month or so) that they stick in one's brain long after reading the text. In short, the pictures in this book are inspired. I highly recommend them.

What we have here is a formerly up and coming author pairing with a skilled artiste of a past age. The result is the frenzied and fantastical "The Little Spotted Fish". Honestly, if you can get your hands on a copy of this puppy, you will NOT be disappointed. It's far more bizarre than anything I've seen in a long long time. Read it to your kids. They'll adore it, I'm certain.