The Rainbow Fish

Photo credit Scholastic

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister is a beautifully written children’s book that will not only capture the reader’s attention with its eye catching illustrations, but also provide the reader with a wonderful story that leaves a lasting impression. Float along with Rainbow Fish as he learns an important lesson in sharing and caring while making friends.

While Pfister provides readers with a simplistic plot about sharing and making friends, there are a few unexpected insights that are in place for readers to discover for themselves. While Rainbow Fish learns about how sharing can help him make friends and feel happy, the octopus also tells him, “You will no longer be the most beautiful fish in the sea, but you will discover how to be happy.” Essentially the fish is learning that beauty is not the most important thing in life. There are greater things to life than beauty, such as kindness, friendship, giving to other who are less fortunate than you, and happiness. These are the major components in life and Rainbow Fish is discovering them along with the readers, through the simplistic act of sharing his sparkly scales that were once his most prized possessions.

The illustrations create a textural look with the Rainbow Fish’s shiny scale to draw the reader’s eye to these special scales. The scales are not only differentiated from the other illustrations on the page because of their sparkle, they also create a textural look with the small circles that are layered on top of each other to make a bumpy, shiny feel. Only the special scales that are very important to Rainbow Fish are illustrated using this textural feel, ensuring that the reader can tell that these are different from both the other fish and his other scales.

The colors that the illustrator uses really enrapture the reader to feel as though they are in the ocean along with the other fish. The different color hues of blue and green with a little bit of purple really create a cool, underwater feel. These cool hues demonstrate how the uncaring and proud the Rainbow Fish is until the other fish no longer admire him. As he begins to share the hues seem to brighten up while still keeping the underwater feel.

I agree with Pfister, that beauty is not the most important thing in the world and that sharing what makes us special can make the world a better place. When we share our kindness, our friendship, our happiness and our possessions with others, we can add to their lives which impacts our families, our communities and our world. I think this story does a good job at not being too didactic and providing these lessons in ways that the reader has to pull back like layers of an onion. I think Rainbow Fish is an engaging story that will capture the hearts of young children and adults! Overall I think this book deserves four out of five stars!

The Rainbow Fish intertwines it’s beautifully colored illustrations with a plot line that helps students learn that there are more important things in life than beauty. The characters are illustrated to show their differences from Rainbow Fish and his sparkly scales. So much can be discovered through this story, and it’s a great read to spark wonderful discussions!

Pfister, M. (1992). The Rainbow Fish. New York, NY: North South.