Poor Doreen: A Fishy Tale
Miss Doreen Randolph-Potts is an “Ample Roundy Fish” on a mission: to swim upstream to visit her second cousin twice removed and her 157 new babies. Along the way she eats a yummy treat, goes on a side outing, has a rest, and flies. Except none of that is accurate. In actuality, she is caught by a fisherman, stashed in a bucket, stolen by a blue heron, and dropped midflight back into the river, where she completes her journey and shares with her relatives the “most incredible high-flying fishy tale no one would ever have believed in a million years—if it weren’t true.” Doreen, depicted in a red kerchief, is a reassuring figure in a perilous landscape. The omniscient narrator tells her story with heavy doses of foreboding and dramatic flare (“Yes, WATCH OUT, Doreen! You’re about to be . . . EATEN!”), but the illustrations, rendered in watercolor and gouache, have a lighter touch. This feels similar to a trickster tale, except that the heroine does not realize she has outwitted anyone. Very fishy indeed. Preschool-Grade 1. --Kara Dean