Product Description
A fish who longs to fly and a bird who longs to swim trade fins and wings for a new look at life.
From Publishers Weekly
Sister Fish looks up from the depths of her river and longs to swim in the sky. Brother Bird peers down at the "other sky," a stretch of blue river he wants to explore. So she takes his wings, and he gains her fins, and soon each is soaring or swimming through the other's world. Then Brother Bird becomes breathless, and Sister Fish's wings get heavy, so they each return to their natural habitats. But she occasionally leaps out of the water, mystifying the other fish, and he frequently dip-dips his wings, piquing the curiosity of fellow birds. The story's sentiments are confused; both fish and bird seem completely at home in their new worlds. Only at the very last second do either of them experience difficulties that make them switch back. Readers will understand what Sister Fish gains, but Brother Bird's improved way of flying isn't clear in either text or illustration. This modest work is easy to pass up. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
K - Grade 1-- Brother Bird and Sister Fish trade wings and fins to enter each other's worlds in this folktale-like story based on a BBC program. Kennaway uses the possibilities of watercolor to distinguish between the worlds seen through water and through air while portraying the vegetation and animals as stylized, patterned shapes. The eager, round-eyed faces give a silly quality to the brightly colored pictures. The text also uses folk-like patterns of repetition and a Caribbean turn of phrase to tell the slight plot which resembles a pourquoi tale. Nevertheless, this appears to be an original story rather than a true folktale, and there isn't much to it outside of an exuberance that is conveyed better in the illustrations than in the words. --Carolyn Caywood, Virginia Beach Public Library
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.