The fish who could wish

Front cover

I thought I'd stick with illustrator Korky Paul for this next post and share a picturebook I have had on my shelf for ages.  It's always nice to go back to books and rediscover them, and this is what I did with The fish who could wish. Written by John Bush.  Written in rhyme...

"In the deep blue sea,

In the deep of the blue,

Swam a fish who could wish,

And each wish would come true.

He wishes for a castle.

He wished for a car.

But one day he wished

Just  a little too far... "

It is a silly story, but one with a message. 

The front cover shows us the special fish, bright orange in contrast to the slightly opaque fish in the background. He's looking quite a ease... a line of bubbles leading us to his thought, the title of this book - when we return to the cover after reading the story we will smile at the reference to the past, The fish who could wish!  

The bubbles appear through out the visual narrative, linking the fish and his wishes...

The endpapers also show the fish, his bubbles floating up and off the spread ...

Front end papers

The title page shows our fish as though he is telling his story, his fin held high. 

Title page

There was once ...

Opening 1

Always orange and brighter than anything else on the page we see the fish about to wish.  The underworld is luscious with shipwrecks and lots of envious fish. Opening 1 is interesting as the illustration has three white borders, but goes right to the top edge.  

Opening 2

The following spreads contain the fish's wish within a framed illustration, broken only by his bubble. I interpret this as a description of his wish ... the fish is remembering all the fun he had! He wished for a castle, a car, for a horse and a Spanish guitar ... in each illustration the fish is seen in his splendour, the other fish looking more than miffed! 

Opening 4

Our fish wished he could ski and that he could fly.  The illustrations show a proud fish doing just that, lovely undersea blue-green colours in contrast to our bright orange fish. 

Opening 6

Opening 6 is fun, with the fish literally flying around the world, space ships for company.  The calm underwater scene at the bottom of the recto page shows him remembering what he had been able to do. 

Opening 9

Opening 9 is one of my favourite spreads, the fish confidently turning into all sorts of shapes, and below he looks flippantly up at the illustration... it was so easy!

Opening 10

Opening 10 shows the culmination of our fish's silliness,  wearing smart clothes and silk ties ... and he is portrayed on the verso page rather bashfully, as though he admits he really was a bit extravagant.  

Opening 11

Korky Paul prepares us visually for the terrible ending, we read in the verbal text ... "he wished the silliest wish" - we see him swimming away from the wonderful things he had wished for in his life and you will notice that he is in the illustration, no longer looking back at his experience. His wish bubbles are floating upwards and out of the page, going nowhere ...

Opening 12

"That silly fish wishes he could be like all the other fish ..." and sure enough no more bubbles, no more wishes and the shoal of fish around him realise immediately ... and so does our bright orange fish, ooops!  
And we turn the page again to see the same endpapers we saw at the beginning, the fish who could wish!


Scholastic have a short series of activities which focus on the skill of developing self-awareness through the act of wishing.  It's devised for smaller children, but the process of reflecting on what the fish did and talking about it is suitable for older children.  
The theme of wishing is an exciting one, especially when the children realise that wishes are limitless and they can have some fun describing and writing about them.  Even better when wishes become directed to resolving problems in the world.

One smart fish

Front cover

One smart fish, by Chris Wormell, won the Book Trust 2010 award for Best Picture Book for children up to 5 years old. I first heard about it through these awards, and since then it's been sitting on my shelf waiting to appear on my blog! Wormell is probably best known for his picturebook, George and the dragon, which has also been illustrated using watercolour and with the same exquisite detail.  If you go to Chris Wormell's website, you will see he also uses wood block and lino printing techniques in his illustrations - a very tallented chap.

One smart fish is a book about how life evolved on earth, but shown in a fun and entertaining way.  There may be readers of this blog who shake their head and say, "No way!".  That's OK,    selecting picturebooks is a personal thing, something we do based on our own personal beliefs, and the context in which we work.  This may not be the picturebook for every ELT class, but it's certainly very suitable for many. 

I'll start with the front and back covers, which satisfyingly make one whole image, that of a group of diverse, brightly coloured fish watching in amazement as a very boring medium-sized fish plays chess. 

Back and front covers

You'll notice there's a sub-title, "One world changing idea!", already giving us a clue about what is to come.  More clues come on the title page.

Copyright page and title page

Can you see the foot prints in the sand?  Once you've shared this book with a group of children you can ask them why they think the illustrator created this image for the title page.  Then, there's a lovely connection between the dedication, on a sign, which appears on the title page illustration as well, but seen from behind. 

Opening 1

The opening spread is beautiful, a wavy, watery under the sea scene, full of brightly coloured fish, accompanied by an undulating font, which tells us that long ago, really, really long ago, "the ocean was filled with amazing fish". We are then told a little about these fish, with fabulous illustrations supporting the descriptions. Colourful fish, "amazingly weird" fish, fat, thin, short and long. But my favourite are the next two spreads, showing big and small:

Opening 3

Notice how the sentence is left incomplete, a page turning incentive, "Some were cute, and some were ..."  What do you think will come next?

Opening 4

Yikes!  The different perspectives in these illustrations work brilliantly, and they are a nice contrast to the pages before and after which are crowded with fish. We have another unfinished sentence willing us to turn the page.  "But the most amazing fish of all..."

Opening 5

Our hero and protagonist, a boring grey fish is the centre of attention. Look at all those brightly coloured fish, they are amazed. 
Now this boring grey fish "was wonderfully smart".  He could play chess, we've already seen him do this on the front cover, he could sing and dance, he drew and performed (a great illustration of this grey fish holding a fish skull in his hand in a Shakespearean pose!).  But he wasn't satisfied, there was one thing he couldn't do, "he wanted to walk upon the land". 

Opening 8

Opening 8 is a great spread which shows our genius with  his head above the water, as his fishy companions are at the "landside for their holidays", an entertining inversion of our terrestrial reality.  I love the sign warning the fish of shallow water!
Our genius fish thought and thought and finally came up with an idea. "Feet!" So obvious now, but no one had heard of such things back then.  WOW!  Clever fish, he put on his feet and walked out of the sea onto a vaste expanse of sand. 

Opening 11

He was the first creature ever to walk on the land, and so it was boring and he was lonely.  This great expanse of orange sand gives us just that impression, doesn't it?    So he dived back into the water, to his waiting fishy friends.   
Then true to Darwin, Chris Wormell tells us, in quite a matter of fact sort of way, that a few million years later, some other fish tried walking, but they didn't have any feet, so they slithered and crawled up the beach, and he shows us just how they do that from fish to lizard in six moves. 

Opening 13

And when we turn the page, WOW ... "all this started happening", and we are shown creatures of all shapes and sizes emergeing from the fish-like animals coming out of the sea. And of course us humans are there too, near the monkeys and apes. A great spread. And all because one smart fish had an idea! 


Even though this picturebook is for under 5's, in an ELT context, with lower exposure to English, it's very suitable for primary children.  Some of the text is quite dense, but accessible in a sort of chatty style.  Older primary children will appreciate the visual humour, they will also enjoy looking closely at the illustrations if you leave the book in the classroom library.