Fabulous Fishes

Stockdale, Susan. 2008. Fabulous Fishes.

Simple is beautiful. Simple is wonderful. I loved Fabulous Fishes. In very few words and with bright and colorful illustrations, Susan Stockdale creates a fabulous book. A book all about fishes.
How simple is simple?

I think the text and illustrations speak for themselves.

Round fish,
clownfish,
fish that like to hide.
Striped fish,
spiked fish,
fish that leap and glide.

There we have the first seven pages of the book. See what I mean. Simple. Straightforward. Here are a few examples of the illustrations:


Don't you just love the illustrations? Nothing flashy. Nothing glittery. But somehow just right all the same.

Can a book be both simple and complex? It can when it's fabulous.

Susan Stockdale includes at the end of the book facts about each of the fish mentioned (or rather illustrated) in her book. For example, the pink and purple fish shown above we further learn, "the discus is flat and round like a pancake, allowing it to swim easily among upright reeds. (Amazon basin)."

The picture above that one goes with this text, "The butterfly fish uses its long pointed snout to search the cracks of coral for tiny animals to eat. (Indian, Pacific, and Western and Eastern Central Atlantic oceans)."

I loved this one. Definitely recommended.

© Becky Laney of Young Readers