Book Beat: Is the Rainbow Fish a Red?

Children's story values flash over substance.

Let's take a moment to pity the children of English majors whose parents' uncontrollable lit-crit tendencies keep the books their peers love out of their reach. Our first child is not even born, and already I'm culling his library for unsavory messages, tacky topics, and egregious grammar. Will he have a severe knowledge deficit if he doesn't read Everyone Poops? This mom is willing to risk it.

Currently on the chopping block is Marcus Pfister's The Rainbow Fish. Despite its vibrant cover and shimmering illustrations, the story has a dark underbelly with a warped message about how to make friends.

The Rainbow Fish (RF) starts out as a vain jerk. He won't play with the other fish because he's "too beautiful." Another fish asks him if he can have one of his shiny scales. RF is quite justifiably appalled (after all, that is a piece of his body!), and the beggar fish swims away. Then RF has an odd moment where he asks an octopus why no one likes him (how RF got from being "too beautiful" to caring about what others think is not explained). The octopus advises RF to give away his shining scales: "You won't be as beautiful, but you will have friends." Heeding this advice, RF gives away all but one of his scales and swims off happily with his new scale-sporting friends. The end.

Um, let's go back to: "You won't be as beautiful, but you will have friends." What a message! Arguably, the word "beautiful" could represent RF's vanity here—meaning he had to let go of his snotty attitude in order to befriend others. But literally—which is how I think most youngsters would read this—it sounds like having a distinguishing characteristic all your own is a bad thing. Distribute the wealth, or else the proles will get you! Worse is the idea that you have to buy friendship by giving away the part of yourself that makes you who you are. The Rainbow Fish gave up his rainbowness to be part of the pack. The word for that in the adult world is sell-out.

If the other fish in RF's world were also special and had something to share, I wouldn't be as bothered by the overall story arc. In that case, there would have been wonderful opportunities for lessons celebrating the uniqueness of individual contributions and the rewarding result of cooperation. But as is, RF comes across as a stereotypical bourgeois pig, who gives in to proletariat demands to share his wealth in exchange for social status. What kind of worldview is that for a child? It sounds like a Faustian bargain to me.

True friendship can't be bought—not with shiny scales or bits of one's soul. While the value of sharing and being unselfish can't be stressed enough, it can never be gained at the expense of one's integrity. Maybe it's asking too much of a children's book to make that distinction, but it's enough to keep The Rainbow Fish off our baby's shelf.


The Rainbow Fish: *