Hooray for Fish!

This is a celebration of diversity, as seen through the eyes of a little fish. The story is cute, the illustrations are beautiful. It’s perfect for toddlers, at least my three year old granddaughter loves it!

Rhyming text names different kinds of fish (not all real) by colors, patterns, and numbers. I was actually pretty disappointed, having liked Hooray for Birds so much. This title has no interactive element like that one does, and features imaginary fish like an "ele-fish" who features a trunk and tusks. Hooray for Birds just seemed so much better!

Cousins, Lucy, Hooray for Fish, Candlewick Press 2005
4 Stars
This simple, rhyming narrative is told by Little Fish as he introduces the reader to his many fishy friends. Readers discover that Little Fish has friends of all shapes, colors and sizes, but the fish he loves most of all is his Mom waiting for him at the end of the story. The text has an intuitive rhythm, successful repetition of phrases and a consistent rhyme throughout the story. The font of the text gives the appearance of being handwritten in marker and dances through the book by weaving in and out of the illustrations. The illustrations are bright and bold cartoon drawings that are appropriate representations of the narrative. Each page has a different background color show more from the next, which allow the simple cartoon drawings to pop on the page. This book would do well as a read aloud in a thematic storytime hour about ocean life or marine creatures with preschool age children. This book would also be a good fit for one on one reading with a child beginning to read simple words, however the variation in text placement make this less than ideal for readers beginning to read full sentences. This books is recommend as an additional purchase in a public library looking for ocean themed picture books or for an ocean themed story hour. (Ages 2-6) show less

preschool/toddler picture book

large colorful pictures to draw the child's eye in, with whimsical and interesting vocabulary contained in the rhymes: "stripey fish.. gripey fish.... eye fish, shy fish, fly fish, sky fish."

this is a bit long for my baby/toddler groups but would work well one-on-one or with older toddler/preschoolers.

I really like this book by Lucy Cousins. The main idea is to present rhymes to young readers. I like this book because as each different type of fish is presented, the illustration of that fish reiterates it. For example, the 'hairy fish' has long hair, and the 'scary fish' has a scary expression. I also like this book because it has an easy sing-song rhythm to it, which allows for easier and more pleasant reading.

(Easy Picture Book)This book follows the journey of a little fish who is swimming to be with his favorite fish of all, his mama. Along the way, we encounter many of his aquatic friends described in rhyming imagery and depicted in vibrant color. At the end, little fish is rewarded with a kiss from his mom. I loved the pictures which are done in the typical Lucy Cousin style (Maisy) and the fun descriptions of the fish such as curly whirly and twisty twirly. More imaginative descriptions of the fish were ele-fish, sky fish and eyefish that correspond with the colorful pictures as one might imagine a sky fish or an eye fish would look like. A fun arts and crafts project I have often incorporated with this book, though very simple, is to show more have the children create their own kind of fish and draw it on paper or a paper plate. You can then glue construction paper triangles on for fins. show less

I love this book.My sons, too/ It's full of colours, shapes, and I love reading the book out loud for my son, and pointing to the spiny, spotty, stripy, little purplish fish! Do I need to say more?