One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (I Can Read It All by Myself) (Hardcover)

by Dr. Seuss (Author), Theodor Seuss Geisel (Author) "From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
"Did you ever fly a kite in bed? Did you ever walk with ten cats on your head?" Such are the profound, philosophical queries posed in this well-loved classic by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel. While many rhymes in this couplet collection resemble sphinx-worthy riddles, Seuss's intention is clear: teach children to read in a way that is both entertaining and educational. It matters little that each wonderful vignette has nothing to do with the one that follows. (We move seamlessly from a one-humped Wump and Mister Gump to yellow pets called the Zeds with one hair upon their heads.) Children today will be as entranced by these ridiculous rhymes as they have been since the book's original publication in 1960--so amused and enchanted, in fact, they may not even notice they are learning to read! (Ages 4 to 8)

Review
Dr. Seuss ignites a child's imagination with his mischievous characters and zany verses. The Express --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 63 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (March 12, 1960)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394800133
• ISBN-13: 978-0394800134
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (141 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #702 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book that doesn't drive parents nuts, June 22, 2000

By	Jim Carson "http://www.jimcarson.com" (Bellevue, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The thing I like most about this book is it survives the perpetual-reading test, that is, neither my daughter nor I am tired of reading it after two years.

"One Fish..." is really composed of several "short" sections that can be read in any order, so for a toddler, it's perfectly fine to skip around. In fact, this is conducive to a toddler's randomness - one day it's "Hop hop hop, I am a Yop"; another day it's "From there to here."

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest book ever written by anybody ever., September 24, 2000

By	Evan Streb (ohio) - See all my reviews

Allright ya little PUNKS. You go read your Tom Clancys and your sappy Danielle Steel romance novels and your "Bridges of Madison County"s and we can even go back time to your Mark Twains and your "Catcher In The Rye"s, you go read ALL of that. Then read THIS book, and YOU tell me which one is better. Because NONE of that can match the emotional intensity of reading to your kids at bedtime: "Once there was a little Nook. On his hat he had a hook. On his hook he had a book. On his book was "How to Cook". But a Nook can't read and a Nook can't cook, so what good to a Nook is a hook cook book?" AWESOME!

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Daughter's Favorite Book by Dr. Seuss, August 27, 2000

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Researchers constantly find that reading to children is valuable in a variety of ways, not least of which are instilling a love of reading and improved reading skills. With better parent-child bonding from reading, your child will also be more emotionally secure and able to relate better to others. Intellectual performance will expand as well. Spending time together watching television fails as a substitute.

To help other parents apply this advice, as a parent of four I consulted an expert, our youngest child, and asked her to share with me her favorite books that were read to her as a young child. One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish was her pick as the best of the books by Dr. Seuss.

One of the appeals of this book is that it is relatively easy to learn to read, yet has much more variety than most other early readers. So your child will feel like she or he has accomplished a lot with reading this book, which is correct.

The title gives the key to why this book works well as an early reader. One word is changed at a time, with a clear illustration next to it. Most children will read the illustrations like a rebus and later associate the words with the sounds of the name for the pictures. At some point, they begin reading from the words. Very nice!

Here's another sequence: "black fish blue fish old fish new fish."

Then, when he moves on, he uses simple rhymes: "This one has a little star. This one has a little car."

Next, he progresses to substituting "some" for "fish" and adding a single verb to make a sentence as in "Some are read . . . . Some are old."

So almost any child can soon begin to read along with few errors in the first 2 or 3 pages. Whenever the child can go no more, you can just keep going. With repetition, more of the book becomes memorized and the process continues.

There is another reward for you and your child: The book also previews many of the wonderful characters and rhyming schemes that appear in other Dr. Seuss books. As a result, it will be easier to get started reading those books. You will feel like you are seeing an old friend again.

You can also use each rhyme to take off on your own speculations. Our daughter used to love to come up with alternative rhymes that fit the pictures.

Books like this one make it great fun to be either a parent or a child. In some cases, this book will be there for you in both roles over 20 to 40 years!

Overcome your mistaken beliefs about how children can start to learn to read by seeing your child start naturally by associating the words with the pictures as you read this wonderful book to him or her!