User:Gladys j cortez/Sandbox/Rainbow Fish (Book)

For the freshwater fish, see Rainbow fish.

The Rainbow Fish is an award-winning children's book drawn and written by Marcus Pfister, and translated into English by J. Alison James. The book is best known for its morals about the value of being an individual and for the distinctive shiny foil scales of the Rainbow Fish. PBS and the PBS Kids turned the story into a 26-episode animated television series of the same name, which has aired on the HBO Family digital cable television channel in the United States since 2000.

Plot

The story follows the beautiful Rainbow Fish, who is covered in colorful shiny scales. Proud and vain, he thinks he is better than all the other fish and will not play with them. When one small fish asks the Rainbow Fish for one of his scales, he rejects him. The other fish then refuse to talk to the Rainbow Fish at all, so the Rainbow Fish visits the wise female octopus for advice. The octopus advises him to give away his scales to the other fish.

When he encounters the small fish a second time, the Rainbow Fish gives him one of his precious scales, and is soon surrounded by other fish requesting scales. Eventually, the Rainbow Fish has only one shiny scale left, but he is no longer vain. He spends his days playing happily with the other fish.

The moral

This book can be interpreted in several ways. One interpretation is that sharing is good, as it makes the recipients and the sharer feel better, and that being vain instead of treating others with respect is bad [1].

Others believe the book promotes the idea that giving away all—or, in this case, almost all—of one's worldly possessions is best, or that one must give up one's unique identity in order to be accepted by society. [2]

Criticism

Critics of the book believe that its main purpose is to promote the idea of socialism and income redistribution to small children, and to demonize the idea of individualism and personal property.

The critics' claim is that the story does not promote healthy sharing, but rather advances the idea of a socialist society where wealth is redistributed to the point where everyone has the same amount of wealth, and individualism and capitalism are wrong and should be shunned. These ideas are in contrast with traditional American values, and are seen by some as a way to undermine them.

Neal Boortz argues that the book is "insidious", because it "aims at human beings who are still at their most impressionable age.." and "too many American parents have no idea just what kind of message they're imparting..." because parents and teachers see the book as story with a "sharing and vanity moral" instead of the straightforward text of the material.

The series

Main article: goes here The story has also become a television series. The series does not, however, follow the plot of the book; rather it takes the character and the setting and creates a new story with them. There have been some characters added and others embellished upon for the purposes of the show.

External links

• A supplemental Rainbow Fish craft for young children

References

Category:Children's picture books