Review of There’s Something Fishy About My Fish

[Ivana Tomaš]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "There’s Something Fishy About My Fish" by Bryan Carrier.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Children's books can oftentimes be unusual and whimsical. They don't even have to make sense, which is precisely the fun element that attracts young readers. There's Something Fishy About My Fish by Bryan Carrier is one such book that would appeal to those children with an exuberant and playful imagination.

The book follows a boy who is woken up one night by the ticking of the grandfather clock. After the clock ticking had already woken him up, he heard various sounds of smashing and banging and decided to get out of bed. When he got to the kitchen where those sounds were actually coming from, he saw his goldfish using the kitchen tools. The reader further learns if the boy's fish does any other unusual activities during the night while everyone else is sleeping.

This relatively short picture book intrigued me at first. The illustrations are amusing, with vibrant and bright colors that will immediately capture children's attention. The very concept of the story is a bit strange and unusual. It is about a fish that does various activities around the house in the middle of the night. Many things in this book don't make sense, but I think many kids would like that aspect. I like this kind of casual atmosphere, not following the rules of physics or anything natural, and the dreamy factor. The reader gets the impression that the main character dreams all of this. It is even left to the reader to decide whether this story is a dream or something else.

As for the negative aspects of the book, I think that the book does not send a single important message to the readers. Another negative element is that the book does not have page numbers. Also, it would have been preferable if the book had been a bit longer and the plot had been more complex. On the other hand, the book seems very well edited, considering that I encountered only one error.

Overall, I give this book 2 out of 4 stars. The main reason for this is that the book has potential, but the story is not elaborated well enough. Likewise, I think the potential reader of this book will either really like it or not like it at all. All things considered, I think that the perfect readers for this book would be children of kindergarten age who have a very active and playful imagination. This book would be boring and vague for slightly older children, especially for an older audience.

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There’s Something Fishy About My Fish
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[Summer Henrietta]

The name of the book is really catchy. It would really appeal to kids who fantasize alot.
Great review.

[Radhika Nair]

Must books send a message? This sounds very fun and imaginative. There's no harm in books, particularly books for children, being pure mindless fun. Not to mention that all the supposedly great art these days goes out of its way to prevent audiences from taking away any message from it. Thank you for the review.