The Rainbow Fish

Author/Illustrator: Marcus Pfister

Translated by: J. Alison James

Genre: Fantasy

Grade Level: PreK-3

Rainbow fish is a very beautiful fish. He has a lot of sparkly scales that the other fish do not have and as a result he does not play with the other fish. A little blue fish asks him if he can have one of his scales and the rainbow fish says no. The little fish becomes sad and tells the other fish and the other fish start to shun the rainbow fish. Rainbow fish asks an octopus how to be happy in which the octopus replies that she can't give rainbow fish the secret to happiness. The little blue fish comes back and makes the same request for a scale and this time rainbow fish gives him one. Then they all become happy and like rainbow fish again. 

This could be used in the classroom to teach a story of sharing. The underlying message of this book isn't very good though and I would most likely not use this in my classroom. 

The illustrations are awesome! I really like that the sparkles are different material and you can really feel the sparkles. The color scheme is obviously very cool since the setting is in the ocean.