THE BIG FISH

When the stranded fish that a couple has rescued offers to grant a wish, they ask for a child--but then reject the fish's first two offerings: ""That girl is completely black...That boy is entirely brown, and we are white."" After the couple spurns two more orphans because ""they are all yellow,"" the fish leaves them in disgust. Years later the fish returns, to find the couple and their Asian children living happily together. The artist, an Indonesian who works in the Netherlands (this was originally published in Germany), uses delicate pen strokes to show facial expressions and to solidify selected details in his simple watercolor scenes. The visual narrative, punctuated by eye-catching arrays of sea life, tops a brief, unembroidered text. An international group of children parading across the endpapers makes a fetching invitation to this well-meaning, attractively turned-out book, but the color stereotyping in the story is a serious flaw.