Meaghan,
The picture book, Dear Fish, by Chris Gall was fun to read and I think is a great introduction to the summer season! I don’t know about you but I was ready to head to the beach when I was finished reading it!
I feel this book has multiple story elements that fit into the modern fantasy genre. The whole story line is about fish coming out of the ocean and appearing in different areas around a community. There are fish everywhere; in the school, in trees, at baseball games, in homes, bathtubs and in the kitchen (to name a few). This component to the story violates natural and physical laws in our world. Fish cannot survive on dry land and most certainly cannot swim on over to a house!
While these fish are not talking characters, they are taking the place of other objects. For example, when Sally is getting ready for her birthday party, she is blowing up blow fish instead of balloons! At the baseball game, the hot dogs have been replaced with silver fish resting inside the buns.
This story has two parallel worlds: our world that we live as human beings and the world of fish. The drawings show these two words merged together. The art work is interesting because it looks like two separate scenes were drawn; the human world and then fish swimming in the ocean. It’s like these two scenes were merged together and the water was taken away if that makes any sense. While the fish are invading the human world, they appear as if they are still just swimming in the ocean.
The gateway into connecting these two worlds happened when the little boy wrote a letter to the fish asking them to visit his world. He put the note in a bottle and put it in the ocean. The fish took him up on it and invaded!
3 comments:
Amy,
Yes, this book has helped to get me ready for summer as well! I loved the illustrations. As I took a picture walk through the book I thought the magical world that was depicted would drawn in any student.
There are some clear fantasy motifs present. The most basic element, magic, was obvious as soon as the first fish made it's way into the world of humans. Although students are familiar with seeing fish in our world (in tanks or on a dinner plate) the author gives these fish the magical ability to join us in our world, acting as humans would. As you pointed out there is also the aspect of the gateway between the world of humans and fish with the note in the bottle that the boy threw into the sea.
I would not consider the boy to be a hero in this story, although he seems to have a good deal of control over the events that take place. Although at the end of the story there is the illustration to depict that the boy and his family are starting on a journey, I don't think it will be a journey where he will mature as a person. I predict that it will simply be a wonderful adventure.
I had originally thought that special character types included traditional creatures such as fairies and unicorns. After taking another look through the Modern Fantasy chapter in Children's Literature Briefly, I read that special character types can also be a creation of the author's imagination. Would you consider the fish to be special character types? Either way, I would determine that this book is not high fantasy, although some of the motifs are present.
Meaghan,
I would not consider the fish special character types however; the author does hint to this at the end of the story. The boy and his family go back to the beach and he promises his parents that he will not throw anything into the ocean or invite any more creatures to come visit. The very last paragraph of the story says:
On a small sliver of sand by the water’s edge, down deep in the rocks, something caught Peter Alan’s eye. There seemed to be something inside…
This something that caught his eye was a piece of paper sticking out of the shell. The only writing that you can read is “Dear Humans,” While there is other writing; it is too small to read. I think this idea that the fish responded to the boy in writing displays the hint of special character types. I like the fact that as the reader, you don’t know what it says. It leaves the possibility open for students to infer and discuss what the note could possibly say. The last page of the book is a picture of the family in their car driving under the water. One would assume that the fish invited Peter and his family to come explore their community.
I agree that Peter, the boy does not fill the role of a hero however, I do view him as someone who has learned his lesson. The fish finally left when Peter wrote another note asking them to go back home because their mother’s were calling them. While this does not display heroism in any way, I feel it does show maturity. I think the boy realized to be careful what you wish for because it might come true!
I agree that this is not a high modern fantasy book but it definitely portrays some elements of basic modern fantasy.
Amy,
As we've been talking about the aspects of modern fantasy in this book I am immediately drawn back to the illustrations. The cartoonish drawings really give the reader the sense that they have stepped into another world. I love the use of bright bold colors and clean lines. If you look at the publication page it says that the artwork is created through, “hand engraving clay-coated board and then digitizing with Adobe Illustrator for adjustments and color”. I'm not quite sure what that means, but the end results are beautiful!
Gall has definitely shown his sense of humor through his artwork. Any child taking a picture walk would probably laugh out loud at the picture of the whale acting as a hot air balloon or the goldfish popping out of the popcorn tub. It would surely motivate any child to begin reading and find out what actually happens.
After reading some reviews of this book I saw that there were a few people who commented on how the drawings depicted the 1950's. I didn't catch this at first, but after a second look I saw that there were some references (mom baking pies, dad in the wood sided station wagon). When I did some research on Chris Gall I learned that he doesn't only illustrate children's books, he is a well known artist. Many of his paintings depicted images of what seemed to be WWI. It looks like this modern fantasy author also has some interest in historical fiction.
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