My greatest fear is losing my daughter in a crowd. Her safety skills are behind her peers and something we work on so much. Since she learns better visually, as most autistic children do, I hope books will help her to remember to stay close and not run out into a crowd, possibly becoming lost. So when I saw this book, I picked it up for her.
One little secret that children will love about Lost and Found Fish is that on each page the reader can hunt for and find the little fish’s mother! She is there on every page, but she is hidden in the painting. Right off, we see that a little fish has lost his mother. He saw many other types of fish, but not his mother. Then the little fish went up to the top to look around and saw other baby animals with their mothers, but still can’t find his own. Little Fish then saw a very large big-mouthed fish eat a school of little fish similar to himself! This large fish takes up one full page and half of the facing page! Just as he has given up and hides in an opening beside of two rocks, we see him start to cry. There she is! His mother was there in between the rocks! The book ends as they swim off together.
I didn’t care for this book at all. The pictures were great, but the text was not engaging and kind of boring. The text does not flow well and is not fun to read or engaging to kids. Every other page of text rhymes. Some passages are repeated over and over. Here is a sample of the text:
“Little Fish wanted his mother,
where was she, where was she?
Little Fish wanted his mother, yes, he did.
At the edge of the pond tippa-taw, prowled Genet
When she drank, lippa lap, Little Fish’s tail went SLAP!”
This 23-page book seems the right size for younger children ages 1-2 year old, but the text would not keep them interested. The illustrations may keep interest with the multitude of busy animals. I would recommend it more for ages four and up. One to seven lines of text are on each page. The color illustrations show mainly the sea and animals (sea and land animals). They look like chunky paintings to me. Simple drawings that your children may want to try and recreate or make up their own styled fish drawing! Children may be sad for the fish or scared when the bigger fish eats some small fish in Lost and Found Fish. My daughter wasn’t though!
More by this author:
Jamie Lee Curtis: Answering Life’s Questions for Kids, One Children’s Book at a Time. Is There Really a Human Race?