Review: a timeless children's story about trying to fit in to make friends -- and even why it rains
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 17, 2014
Big Fish is an excellent children’s story, a type of folktale written by Ahmad Amani—and he did the drawings for the book as well! Ahmad is a most talented man; I myself (even as an adult) was captivated by the short story and I liked his drawings which at first seem rather simplistic but take on a certain charm that I really came to appreciate. Grownups will happily bond with toddlers and young kids as they read this book together and the vocabularies of young children will be enhanced as they read this book and discover new words. True, there may be one or two rather minor typographical errors in the book but they in no way interfere with the enjoyment of the story.At the start of the tale, we meet Big Fish who was very much alone without friends “because it was so big.” To make friends, Big Fish first tries to become a bad fish but soon discovers that it has become so bad that the smaller bad fishes had nothing bad to do and they reject Big Fish! Big Fish then tries to be the best fish ever in the ocean but this only makes the other good fish jealous and so yet again poor Big Fish has no friends.However, Big Fish makes friends with the moon and it even jumps into the moon so they can be best friends, which pleases the moon since the moon had no friends, either! Trouble starts, though, when Big Fish notices the moon becoming smaller—and when Big Fish feels sad and begins to cry its tears fall upon the Earth making the very first rain!Of course there’s a little bit more to the story but I’ll stop to avoid spoiling it all for you! Suffice it to say that small kids and toddlers alike will be fascinated by this timeless story that essentially teaches that when you try to make yourself fit in to be accepted it doesn’t always work very well.Great work, Ahmad! Please, keep these fine children’s books coming! I only wish I had such lovely children’s books when I was a kid!