Fish is Fish

Tadpole and fish are friends, but suddenly tadpole starts changing turning into a frog. Frog visits fish telling him all about the world on land which sparks the curiosity of fish. Fish tries to be like frog by jumping out of the water to explore the world on land, but he cannot. Fish decides it's okay to live in the water, as his world is beautiful too. This is a wonderful lesson for children. We are all unique in our own way and we should not compare ourselves to anyone else. This too could be a great tool to incorporate into a lesson on the lifecycle of frogs. ( )

A fish and a tadpole/frog think about all the other beings of the world. But when fish tries to find them he finds out it is better to be a fish. ( )

The friendship of a minnow and tadpole is followed through their stages of becoming a fish and a frog. The fish struggles with accepting who she is as she watches her friend, the frog, blossom and live a life outside of their little pond. The fish almost dies when one day she jumps out of the water to see the world outside of the water in which the frog described to her. As an author and illustrator, Leo Lionni created many picture books that seem to have a common theme of self-acceptance. "Fish is Fish" however, is my least favorite of his books because though it is creative and the illustrations are beautiful/hilarious, I felt that this book could easily take away the sense of "dreaming big" for young readers. ( )

This is a sweet story about a tadpole and minnow that are great friends. The tadpole transforms into a frog and ventures off to see the world. When the frog returns and tells the minnow what creatures he had encountered, the minnow dreams of the world outside the pond. The minnow wants to venture off too. When he jumps out of the pond and gets stuck one land, his trusty pal rescues him. He realizes that "frogs are frogs and fish are fish." This book would be great to read when learning about the life cycle of a frog. Also, Lionni uses a great crayon technique for his illustrations that would be fun to try out as an art activity, along with writing. ( )

This was also one of my favorites for the week. One of the main characters, fish, has a hard time seeing the world from another perspective. When his friend, frog, leaves him to go see the world, he comes back and has stories of what he saw along the way. Fish sees the cows, birds and people as fish too. He tries to be like frog and go see the world, but when that goes wrong, he has to come to the realization that "fish is fish" and he must accept who he is and realize that everyone has their differences. ( )