Swimmy (1963)

Swimmy is a little fish with an ample amount of courage. This story teaches children that when people work together they can do great things, even if they seem scary. The artwork is amazing and Lionni uses unique painting techniques to enhance the story. This is a great book to teach the importance of team work.

This is a charming story of a little fish called Swimmy, who thinks creatively and allows a school of fish to explore the sea. Along the way, Swimmy checks out the ocean himself, and the illustrations are very pretty! My favorite illustration is the "forest of seaweed." ( )

Loved the illustrations. The text was alright, but simpler than I would have liked. ( )

Summary: Swimmy is the only little fish amongst his brothers and sisters who was born black instead of red. Swimmy can swim faster than all of the other fish, and one day when a big fish came and swallowed up all of the little fish, Swimmy was the only one who escaped. Left alone in the ocean, Swimmy travels about, meeting all sorts of sea creatures who come in different shapes and sizes. He ends up meeting another school of fish who will not come out and play, for fear of a big fish eating them. Swimmy comes up with a plan to teach the fish how to swim together in formation to look like the biggest fish in the sea, with Swimmy being the eye.

Genre Critique: This is a good example of a fantasy, because it would not be possible for fish to talk in the real world. Even though this part of the story cannot be true, students can still relate to the idea of joining with their classmates to work together to accomplish tasks. In addition, the context of the story is believable, as the ocean life that Swimmy encounters all exists in the real world.

Characterization Critique: Swimmy would be considered a dynamic character. At the beginning of the story, Swimmy is described as being scared, lonely, and very sad. Throughout the story, Swimmy comes across many different sea creatures and experiences the beauty of the different ocean life. When he comes across a group of scared fish, Swimmy takes his new-found courage to help them swim together to protect themselves. Swimmy's character is believable, because many children may understand what it is like to both overcome your fears and work together with others.

Swimmy is the fastest fish in the school and also happens to be black in color when all the other fish are red. This is not a disability for people but for a fish it can be. I believe the issue of race is also somewhat addressed in this story too. This book is for young children but may not be understood by the younger ones. The story tells us that fish need to swim in schools to survive or they would be eaten. After the first school is eaten Swimmy swims around the ocean looking for friends or family to live with. He finds some more fish friends hiding in the reef. When he addresses them they are scared because they will be eaten. Swimmy suggests that together they can disguise themselves as a large red fish with one big black eye. This works and the group swim off together. If a teacher discusses this book with children they should be able to understand that the fish are different and it is ok to be different, you just have to overcome a challenge and then you can live happily ever after. I suggest this story because Swimmy didn’t have to change himself just how he thought. It is a good question asking story. Before you get to the end you can ask the children what they think Swimmy and the other fish should do. Again this book didn’t address a specific disability but it did have a challenge and a happy ending so it could be worked into a lesson plan about differences and disabilities. ( )