MY GOLDFISH

Forget about your brilliant pet cat or your amazing dog. Barroux has a goldfish that outshines them all. It’s strong, fearless, inventive, adventurous and talented. But it is also messy, it doesn’t always listen and sometimes it has nightmares. While the narrator loves it immensely, he understands that it cannot live forever and will one day be gone. Simple sentences describe these qualities, often with gentle humor, and are accompanied by strong, bright, deceptively basic illustrations. In each, heavy black outlines define the fish bowl, while the goldfish is drawn in a thin white outline within an orange paint smear laid over another smear of white, making the creature somewhat static. The very elements that make the work sophisticated and unique may be problematic for its intended audience of three- to seven-year-olds. The narration is random and an allusion to swimming “with the great white fish” as a metaphor for death is likely to be too abstract. Some of the illustrations might also be difficult for the youngest, literal-minded readers to decipher. Misses the mark. (Picture book. 7-10)