My kids’ tastes ebb and flow more quickly than the tides. Katie, in particular, will practically be so attached to a book for a few days that my husband and I worry that it will have to be surgically removed from her hands. She will even sleep with her favorites under her pillow, just in case.

About a year ago, she was fixated on Swiss author’s Marcus Pfister’s Rainbow Fish (oder Regenbogenfisch auf deutsch). The book was loved a little too much to death and was subsequently replaced with a German version that my husband picked up on a trip to Germany. As I’ve mentioned before, he is fluent in German and we think that his reading to the kids in German is a good way to expose the children to the language with none of the pressure of formal lessons.

The German version of Rainbow Fish lasted for a bit and was eventually set aside in favor of other, newer books. You know, the whims of children.

Until Christmas. For Christmas, we tried to tailor all of the girls’ presents towards art. They both love art and I thought it would be great for them to have their own craft space. Friends of ours gave them sparkly silver circles in various colors. Katie looked at them and immediately decided that she had to color and glue together a rainbow fish, sparking renewed interest in the book. No wonder, as it is, quite simply, a stunning picture book.

In the book, the scales on the rainbow fish (his pride and joy) are shimmery thanks to foil inserts over watercolor prints. The illustrations are especially beautiful in dim light, perfect for right before bedtime.

You’d think that this classic, which remained on the NY Times bestseller list for ages, is pretty innocuous: it’s a book with beautiful pictures and a fairly straightforward storyline (more about that in a bit). So imagine my surprise when I surfed over to amazon.com earlier in the year and found the most controversial customer reviews that I’ve ever seen for a children’s book! It’s worth following the link to see such gems as:

Give this book to your children if you would like them to grow up as communist homosexuals.

and

The message made me recoil, it honestly did. It says: if you do not do what I want you to do, I will run whinning to everyone I can and convince them that I have been injured and you will be a social pariah– different is to be fear and emotional bullying is okay.

I will not flog this horse anymore, as Mr. M. Newman, one of the reviewers, said it best any way.

This book is cruel and mean in message and should be kept away from any child that we hope to make into a good, productive citizen of this country.

and

Analysis:

1. I do understand that this is *supposed* to be about sharing, but I think that pulling parts of yourself off and giving them away is not a good idea
2. It seems rather socialist to me–everyone simply must have a shiny scale whether or not they have the capacity to grow their own shiny scales or not.
3. Why should anyone have to pay people to be their friend???

and

I really liked this book when I was little. I really loved (and still do) fish. Plus this book has some beautiful pictures. The only thing I didn’t like was the ending. It always made me really sad. Now I know why it made me sad… IT’S COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA! The fish starts out all shiny and pretty, it’s way better than the other fish, but the greedy other fish don’t want to be friends with it. Instead of being happy with what they have, they want to be beautiful like the rainbow fish. They want to have shiny scales too. So the rainbow fish redistributes his scales to all the other fish until each of the fish only has one shiny scale and nobody is very pretty. He gives up his individuality for the good of the collective. This book has evil communist morals! The author equates individualism with possessive selfishness and promotes collectivism as the correct morality. He depicts the fish’s scales as possessions that other fish are entitled to (ie…redistribution of wealth). I can’t believe my parents read this book to me…. It does have pretty pictures though.

Whoa. It’s a kid’s book. But, boy did it hit a nerve with some people. I never *got* what others did, especially the part about pulling bits of yourself off – c’mon, sharing the scales is a metaphor! And, psst, fish don’t really talk either, but that didn’t stop Nemo…

I thought the book had a nice moral about sharing. In the beginning of the story, the rainbow fish has no friends and believes that his beauty alone might enough to make him happy. He eventually finds that he can’t be happy by himself and he seeks counsel from the wise old octopus who advises him that sharing with others might help him discover happiness. The rainbow fish does share his scales with the other fishes and he makes friends.

Despite the negative reviews to the contrary, I don’t think that giving away what makes you special makes you less special. It’s a good lesson to learn that sharing your music, art or talent with others, rather than keeping it to yourself, makes the world a better place. And I certainly didn’t think that the book was some sort of entreaty to give away all of your worldly possessions in order to make friends. Instead, I thought it was a cautionary tale about the dangers of relying upon things to make you happy.

No matter what side you come down on in terms of the moral, it’s a good book to discuss with your children. That’s one of the best things about children’s books, they provide an opportunity to talk to your children, which often gets lost in today’s busy schedules. You can chat with your children about their favorite characters, what they thought about the story, what the story meant to them. And if you think that there is something wrong with the message, that’s the time to talk to your children about that, too.

Of course, you’re the best judge of what makes sense for your children. So, rather than rely on a number of mixed reviews, I encourage you to pick up a copy and judge for yourself what the hub-bub is all about. And stop on by afterwards, I’d love to hear what you think!

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best sellers, children’s book, Rainbow Fish, Regenbogenfisch, Marcus Pfister

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