The Rainbow Fish
Pfister, Marcus. The Rainbow Fish. Illustrated by Marcus Pfister. NordSüd Verlag, 1992. pages.
The Rainbow Fish is a children’s picture book written and drawn by Marcus Pfister, Swiss author and illustrator. This book is about a most beautiful fish in the ocean who is asked to share one of his shining scales from a little fish and the rainbow fish refuses. After that, the rainbow fish gets in trouble from the other fishes and the book shows how he got in trouble and how he solves the problem with helps from wise octopus. The author said about the book, “The Rainbow Fish has no political message. The story shows us the joy of sharing. We all enjoy making presents for Christmas or birthdays and we are feeling good doing so. I want to show to our children the positive aspect of sharing: To share does not only mean to give away something (which is quite hard for a child), but above all to make happy someone else — and itself.”
“You will no longer be the most beautiful fish in the sea, but you will discover how to be happy”
Marcus Pfister, the author, contrasts the drawing with using texture, color, dominance. He uses foil for shining scales of the rainbow fish. It helps reader to have interest and focus on the book because the colorful, brilliant shining scales grabs the attention. Since the book is about fishes in the ocean, there is a lot of blue, but the author uses both of primary and complementary color for making the rainbow fish seems more glow and special than other fishes. Also, the author uses dominance which gives a sense of order by drawing the eye to certain reference points in a picture. When the Rainbow Fish goes to Wise Octopus to get advise from him, the author illustrates much darker where octopus is to make the rainbow fish more shine and the octopus bigger to make the scene more dramatically.
This book could help children to get an idea what sharing is and how happy when we share in someway, but, it also could confuse children more what sharing really is. Because, the book basically shows that the rainbow fish almost forced to share something special what he only has from the other fishes those do not have just because only he has special thing and gets trouble when he do not share with others. The other fishes make the rainbow fish alone just because only he is different with others. It tells we have share to be the same with others to be happy. However, Sharing is not to be forced from others and not to be the same with others. Everyone is different on their own ways and have their own identity. This book is not good enough to people who wants to explain what sharing is to their children even though the author did not mean on this way.