The Rainbow Fish

My kindergarten teacher, Ms. Auten, read my class "The Rainbow Fish" and it has been my favorite book ever since. As a child, I was intruiged by the books appearance, the shiny foil scales of the fish in particular, but I also loved the story, and I remember the day she read it to us vividly. It was the first book I purchased at the book fair and I absolutely could not wait to own it. For these reasons, I can promise to be using this book in my classroom for years to come.

"The Rainbow Fish" is about a beautiful fish with shimmering, rainbow scales. A small fish encounters the beautiful fish and asks for just one of his shimmery scales, to which he is very mean to the small fish and refuses. After this, none of the fish in the ocean will assosciate with the Rainbow Fish, even though he is so beautiful. He seeks advice from the other creatures, such as the Wise Octopus, who tells him to give a shiny scale to each one of the other fish. He might not be as beautiful, but he will be happy. He follows the orders and only has one scale leftover, and none of his vainity from before.

The message about being an individual and not judging others for the way that they appear on the outside is very important. I would not only read this book in a classroom but discuss it as well. It is imperative children know that it is what is on the inside that counts.