The Fish with the Deep Sea Smile – book review

I feel a bit slack with our reading now.  I’ve not read a book myself since around February, although I seem to have 3 in different places in the house that I’ve started.  And since we hit our 300 books, and the weather’s been hotter, our picture book reading has tailed off too.  Mainly because N’s quite often so tired after playing outside and being on the go all day, he doesn’t want a story before bed.

But we have read our latest Book Buddy book from Parragon Books a few times.  Last month’s book was The Fish with the deep sea Smile by Margaret Wise Brown and Henry Fisher (fate that the latter should be writing a book about fish!)

We quite like sea books.  I’m all for encouraging a love of nature and an understanding of the world (bit of my geography background coming out!), and what’s great about so many picture books nowadays, is that they can be quite educational, creating an understanding of jobs, the earth and more.

This book is about people wanting to fish for the Fish with the Deep Sea Smile.  The fish for miles, until right at the end of the journey they manage to seduce him onto their hooks…or do they?

I really liked the rhyming nature of the book when reading it to N.  The words really describe the illustrations of the different fish they meet, and there’s a little twist in the tail (or smile) at the end which N seems to quite like.  He likes to end the sentences as well, which is a way of knowing that he’s really listening and concentrating on the story. 

The illustrations work really well, and are bright enough to stand out from the blues of the sea.  I have to admit I find the Fish with the deep sea smile a bit creepy…he’s like the Cheshire Cat of the ocean although he doesn’t disappear in quite the same way!

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Disclosure: We were sent the book to review as part of the Parragon Books book buddy programme.  All views and words are my own.