FishFishFish

Look out! A little yellow fish swims alone in a big ocean. A hungry barracuda searches for something to eat. A school of fish bands together and finds strength in numbers. Under the waves, every fish has its own story.

In this clever wordless comic, Lee Nordling's simple storytelling engages young readers and provides a gateway into understanding multiple perspectives and points of view.

"Fish--big, small and many--visually tell their tales as three underwater adventures converge in a cleverly developed wordless graphic format. Following the design of its predecessor, BirdCatDog (2014), the book presents three different narratives that can be read individually or as one cohesive story. The first thread follows a bright, lemony yellow tang fish (think a yellow version of Dory from Disney's Finding Nemo) as it swims through a vast ocean, determined in its solitude. Next, a large, menacing barracuda confidently prowls the depths looking for its next meal, thinking itself nearly invincible in its place at the upper echelon of the food chain. The third story offers myriad different fishes banded together to gain protection as a group. When the barracuda goes after the smaller fishes, it learns the small can be mighty, and there may always be some bigger than you. (Echoes of Swimmy resound.) Like peering into an aquarium, Nordling and Bosch's tale is quiet, but it's swimmingly bright with the vibrantly vivid spectrum of underwater life. Readers may well feel they can 'hear' the fish gliding through the water. For those familiar with BirdCatDog, some of the tripartite format's novelty may have worn off, but this exercise in character point of view is still sharply evinced. A peaceful meditation that should delight readers with its multiplicity of composition." --Kirkus Reviews

"This new volume of Three-Story Books features the interconnected, wordless adventures of an independent little yellow fish, a hungry barracuda, and a school of fish. The barracuda chases the yellow fish, who hides in the coral as other small fish gather together for safety in numbers. When the barracuda tries to get them, they flee to the coral where the yellow fish still hides. They all then swim to a shipwreck to evade the barracuda. Each story unfolds in one of three rows of panels on each page, so readers can follow one story at a time or all three at once, which sometimes requires reading the columns of panels from top to bottom in order to make sense of them chronologically. Because the book is wordless, it's accessible to early and emerging readers, who might enjoy creating their own narratives. Bosch's colorful art, clearly depicting the action, characters, and emotional changes as the plot progresses, makes it easy to follow each story individually or all together. Useful as both a storytelling and writing exercise."―Booklist

"This picture book in graphic novel format has a neat structural concept to showcase point of view. The panels can be read by following one of three rows individually, or by going page-by-page in the usual reading method. Each of these rows presents a different character's perspective of events; the top is for the oblivious little yellow fish, the middle for the persistent predator, and the bottom is for the broader collective who bands together to prevent a tragedy. Although kids' eyes will move most naturally from left to right, they will get the full story by taking in the whole page. Even adults can appreciate this nifty approach to the format. Just like Nordling's and Bosch's previous graphic novel BirdCatDog (Lerner, 2014), the final page of FishFishFish states the moral of the story. VERDICT: Thanks to its wordless design, expressive characters, colorful look, and small jumps in time between panels, this tale will appeal to a broad range of children."--School Library Journal