February 19, 2018
Newcomer Alonso’s wordless tale opens as a girl in a summer dress heads down a path to a nearby pond. The surrounding hills are drawn in simple lines, the grass stippled with pencil. The pond and its underwater world, by contrast, carry color and shadow, and teem with stylized, silkscreenlike plants and jumping fish. A tight close-up shows a plan taking shape inside the girl’s head; she imagines swimming with a school of fish. One vermilion fish leaps out of the water, and the girl takes it home, using an array of containers and hoses to create an exciting, multivessel habitat. (It’s the kind of elaborate, messy setup that parents might discourage; fortunately, no parents are around.) With the addition of an inflatable pool, the girl can splash with her fish. But when it leaps free, the girl realizes that it’s unhappy. Often, in stories like this, a parent persuades the child that wild creatures are happier where they belong. Alonso’s heroine realizes this on her own, and readers watch as she sets aside her happiness for the sake of a smaller creature. It’s a polished, thought-provoking debut. Ages 3–5.
March 1, 2018
A little girl tries to construct an aquarium for her new fish in this wordless Portuguese import by an Argentine artist. Following a path from her house to a riverside dock, the girl stares intently into the water and imagines swimming amid fish of varying shapes, sizes, and colors. When a sprightly red fish leaps onto the dock, she captures it and carries it home, where she attempts to assemble an aquarium. Surrounded by assorted containers, hoses, and puddles, the girl dons her bathing suit, hoping to replicate the experience of swimming with her fish. When her fish flips out of the inflatable pool into a puddle, the girl realizes her venture isn't working. Reluctantly, she returns the wee red fish to the river. In this wordless story, illustrations convey setting, character, plot, and emotion through flat patterns, simple lines, and a contained palette of pinks, blues, and golds, rendered in pencil and pen and digitally. Deep tones and bold patterns for river scenes achieve a lush, decorative quality reflecting the girl's oneness with nature, while paler tones and bland furnishings create a sterile interior space, mirroring her inability to replicate nature. Close-ups of the girl's face convey joy, excitement, wonder, dismay, and eventual acceptance. Her fish-shaped barrette and fish-patterned dress and bathing suit cleverly echo the very visible red fish. She is depicted with light ocher skin and purple hair.Moving and evocative visual storytelling. (Picture book. 3-7)
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January 1, 2019
After a fish jumps onto a dock, a girl takes it home and keeps it in her living room. Upon realizing the fish's unhappiness, she returns it to the ocean. This wordless tale's illustrations--in shades of blue, red, and gold--show the dazzling lengths to which the girl goes to turn water, bowls, and tubing into an aquatic indoor world.
(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
Starred review from May 1, 2018
PreS-Gr 2-This transportive wordless picture book debut from Argentinean author/illustrator Alonso taps into childhood imagination in a journey of discovery, experimentation, and letting go. A young girl visiting the nearby river is enchanted by an orange fish. With dreams of getting to be immersed in the world of fishes, she captures the fish and takes it home. There, using various jugs, glasses, bowls, and a small soaking pool, she builds an elaborate aquarium throughout her house. Finally she gets into her pool with the fish, only to realize that this is not a world that will work for the fish, and she makes the tough decision to return it to the river. Alonso's visual storytelling captures the desire of being in the natural world and how humans strive to bring it with us. Using digital, pencil, pen and a mixture of bold and pastel colors, she immerses readers into this child's world to share in her moments of contentment, joy, and worry. Alonso uses every aspect of the book to great effect. The book size, format, and similar use of line and space is reminiscent of author/illustrator Suzy Lee, and both excel at capturing universal child experiences and imaginations. VERDICT A captivating debut that children of all ages will want to soak in multiple times. A must-purchase for libraries; Alonso will be an artist to watch.-Danielle Jones, Multnomah County Library, OR
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