Rainbow Fish

Title: The Rainbow Fish
Author: Marcus Pfister
Publisher: North-South Books

Summary: The Rainbow Fish is a story about a fish with beautiful shiny, sparkly scales.  He would swim around all day and the other fish would admire his scales.  Then one day a little fish asked the Rainbow fish for just one of his shiny scales, but the Rainbow fish yelled at the little blue fish and told him "NO, get away!"  The little blue fish went and told all the other fish, because of this all the other fish decided to stay away from the Rainbow fish.  The Rainbow fish didn't know what to do, without all the other fish admiring his shiny scales he just was not that happy.  He went to the starfish and then to the octopus in the cave.  That was when the octopus in the cave told Rainbow fish to give one of his beautiful scales to all the other fish, at first Rainbow fish said no because he did not think he could be happy.  Then little blue fish showed up and asked for just one shiny scale, and the Rainbow fish decided to give him one!  He felt so happy and then began giving all the other fish some of his shiny scales, until he only had one left.  Rainbow fish found out that even though he didn't have all his shiny scales that he was happier than ever because he had his fish friends and shared his scales.  

I love this book because it can be used in so many different ways.  The journey that Rainbow fish goes on is a real one that many children can make a personal connection to in one way or another.  To me The Rainbow Fish is a great story because it uses such an abstract idea (a fish giving away shiny scales, such a silly idea!) to communicate such an everyday lesson to the reader.  By doing it in this manner it allows the reader to make their own personal connection without feeling boxed into what they had already read in the story.  The dilemma of giving up something that you really love to another person is hard, but to experience the joy of sharing is an important lesson.  Of course The Rainbow Fish also has beautiful illustrations, that make the story that much more enjoyable.