Your Face Will Stick Like That!

The Pout-Pout Fish

Written by Deborah Diesen

Illustrated by Dan Hanna

Farrar Straus Group, 2008

29 pages

Fantasy

            I was on Amazon ordering books and came across this one. I was intrigued with the read aloud CD that came with the book, so I bought it.  When I got the book, I waited until the next morning when I was taking my son to school. I placed the CD in the CD player and we both started to laugh.  The book is about a fish that has a frown, so he is called a pout-pout fish.  He never smiles, and he whines about it.  He says “I’m a pout-pout fish with a pout-pout face” and so he thinks because he looks a certain way, he can’t smile.  All his friends try to get him to smile to no avail.  Then one day something spectacular happens out of the blue!  

            The cartoon illustrations are done with water colors and are a great depiction of the sea and sea life.  The illustrations cover most of both pages with the text on the pages.  Some of the illustrations are done in panels.  The use of color in the illustrations is wonderful with subtle blues, pink, yellows and greens making this book easy to look at and read.

            This book would be good for kindergarten through third grade.  The book is easy to read, but has a subject matter that any age will understand.  I would use this book in a character education class to teach children about diversity and acceptance.  A science lesson would be good for this book to teach students about sea life and plants found in the sea.  A language arts lesson on poetry would be perfect for this book, as it has rhyming words and a quick beat that children love.  To my knowledge this book has not won any awards.