Fish is Fish

I feel that this book offers the development on many different processes. I think there is definitely a focus on inferring the most as we take the information that the frog give us and transform that into a picture of what we are thinking. I feel like we could also help the development of classifying with this book as we go through the differences between each animal we discuss, especially the differences between frogs and fish.

Author: Leo Lionni
Year Published: 1970
ISBN: 9780553522198

Summary

This book is about a minnow and a tadpole friend. The tadpole eventually started to mature and slowly grew legs, and lost his tail. Eventually, the now mature frog was able to leave the pond. When the frog left, he told the minnow about all the neat animals that he saw and how different it was on land. The minnow became curious and wanted to see the land for himself, leading for the fish to be tempted to jump out of the sea, and get stuck on land.

Evaluation

Appropriateness: High
Authority: High
Accuracy: Medium
Liteary Artistry: High
Appearance: High

Questions

Does the book foster development of processes?

Does the book provide an opportunity for children to ask and answer their own questions?

I feel that this book gives children an opportunity to ask themselves questions and as well as let them answer those questions. Specifically, I feel that in the area where the frog is describing all of those animals to the minnow, we can use this to allow students to picture in their own mind what they might have pictures from the frogs description and compare that to what the fish sees, especially since the pictures all visualize the animals as part fish. This type of thinking will get students to wonder why the fish sees the descriptions the way that he does. This can lead questioning about perspective in learning and how someones background can influence what they learn.

Does the book encourage children to think for themselves?

I would say this book is definitely highly rated for the encouragement of showing children how to think for themselves. The way the minnow pictured all the different animals is a great way to foster how different opinions are formed based off a description. I believe this moment in the book is phenomenal and should be pointed out and drawn upon in the class. Through this scene, students can talk about how its okay to think differently from one another and that its safe to say something different from someone else. I believe that knowing it is okay to have different points of view is a tremendous part in children being able to think for themselves due to them realizing that not everyone will think exactly the same way.

Is the science topic addressed in ways that are appropriate to the lesson?

I think this would be a very appropriate book to use over lessons involving life cycles of animals and how some animals life cycles are drastically different than others. I also think that this would be a great book over introducing the concept of the nature of science and explain how students can form different opinions on something and still have that be okay.

Is the content based on sound scientific principles? Is it accurate?

To an extent, this book is pretty accurate. It does go into the differences between minnow and frogs pretty well. It talks about the life cycle of frog and how it slowly, overtime, goes from a tadpole to a frog. It also explains how this is different from a minnow since they only grow in size, but stay relatively the same shape. Where this book lacks, is how the tadpole and the minnow are friends. However endearing this may be, it might give children the wrong impression when they are thinking of animals living in ecosystems, especially since many adult frogs have been known to eat minnows.

Does the book distinguish between fact and fiction?

This book does not distinguish between fact and fiction as much as it should. Overall, however, the fiction in this story, in my opinion, will in no way greatly impede on a student's understanding of science. I believe that the friendship between the minnow and the frog, help foster more to development of science in children, than it does hinder it. Except, I do think it would be of use talking about how unlikely this is to occur in the wild in a classroom.

Are the illustrations clear and accurate?

I feel that the illustrations are very accurate and also exceed at their expectation. This book accurately portrays how a tadpole transforms into a frog, and how a minnow stays the same shape throughout its life. Where I find that this exceeds in illustrations are where they are illustrating the thoughts of the minnow and what it think the other animals look like. The idea to put those animals in the shape of fish is great idea to bring to life what the fish is thinking.

Is the book written at the level of your students?

I find that this book could be used for most students in elementary school if we are strictly talking from a scientific background. It offers scientific thinking that should be revisited and taught every year in our schools, specifically the process of inferring. However, if we are talking about strictly reading levels, I would say this may be too much of an easy read by 4th grade. If children were reading this on their own, I would say that they would have to be around 2nd or 3rd grade to understand this completely. I did find it interesting that the back of the book suggested this for 1st to 3rd grade students. I do not agree with letting a 1st grader read this unless they are highly advanced. There were some challenging words in the book and I feel like they could really discourage a 1st grader if they were being told to read this on their own.

Is there a multicultural component? Is it free from stereotyping?

There is none to very limited multicultural components. Culture is not really mentioned at all in the book. I would say its generally pretty free of stereotyping since culture is not really addressed at all in the book in anyway. I would worry about gender a little, but I will address this more in the next question.

Is the book free from gender bias?

At first glance, I thought this book would be free from gender bias since the minnow and tadpole had no genders. However, after further investigation, I noticed that the minnows portrayal of humans showed a picture of what appears to be a mom, dad, and a son. The "mom" character seems to be wearing a floral dress and the "dad" character seems to wearing a suit. This might invoke some ideas that the man is the person who works, while the mom stays home since the dad is dressed up so professionally, while the mom is not.

Does the book show the close association between science and other disciplines?

I don't think this book shows a close association between science and other disciplines. I think this book introduces a couple of science topics, and from those, you could somehow integrate other disciplines. But, from the book alone, it does not. We could use math skills to figure out how long it might take a tadpole to turn into a frog, and integrate other skills such as this one.

Does the book present a positive attitude toward science and technology?

I feel like this book does show a positive attitude towards science, but does not really talk much about technology. I feel that this book fosters a higher level of thinking in children and that they might begin to ask questions such as why the tadpole gets to leave the water while the fish does not and why the fish is expecting that all other animals not in the sea look like fish. These type of wonderings are very important for children in their development of science and to foster a positive approach to the study.

Science Topics

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Maximum Suggested Grade Level