"The Pout-Pout Fish" by Deborah Diesen

The Pout-Pout Fish was written by Deborah Diesen and illustrated by Dan Hanna. The Pout-Pout Fish is a great children's story the author keeps the reader engaged through creative a creative vocabulary and silly illustrations right until the end. The story starts off with a blue fish who is extremely glum and gloomy. He is a very sad fish who feels it is his place to spread the dreary-wearies throughout the sea and to everyone he meets. The fish meet many swell creatures of the sea but none of them seem to be about to turn his frown upside down. One day a fish swims right up to him and changes his world in an instant. 

The illustrations in The Pout-Pout Fish are terrific. What I love most about them is that they add humor to the story. The story is about this doom and gloom fish but when I read it to my daughter she was laughing at all the fish's funny pout faces. I think the illustration are a very important aspect and add to the text in the story. One of my favorite images from the story was the image of the fish who landed a smooch on the blue fish's pout. I think that the illustration are an important part of the story and the book would be very different without them. This book is appropriate for kindergarten through third grade but I believe everyone could enjoy this story. The genre of this story is a narrative fiction. 

 

One of the biggest literary devices found in the story The Pout-Pout Fish is personification, and rhyme. Personification is when human qualities are given to non-human things like animals or inanimate objects. I think this story would be an excellent teaching aid for introducing students to the ideal of what personification is. One of the first images and wording of personification that readers encounter comes from the very second page of the story. When the fish starts to describe his self to the reader. Since animals cannot talk in real life this is an example of personification. Rhyming is found throughout the book since every other line rhymes. "Along comes a clam, With a wide winning grin, And a pearl of advice for her pal to take in."

Classroom Application:

Critical Thinking Preliminary and Post Reading Questions

• Before teachers begin reading The Pout-Pout Fish to students they should begin by showing students the cover of the book a long with a few images to get them thinking about what the story might be about.
  Teachers should ask questions about the chosen images to get the students engaged and problem solving. Some question that could be asked include: What do you think this story is going to be about?, What do you think is going to happen to the fish?, The story is called The Pout-Pout Fish but why do you think the fish is sad?, Why is the fish laying down?, Why is the pink fish smooching the blue fish?, etc.
• After reading The Pout-Pout Fish teachers should expand on the reading by asking questions that will get students thinking about the future and what happened in the story. For example: Do you think that the blue fish will always be happy now?, What person view point was the story told in and give an example to defend your response?, etc. 

Demonstrating Cause and Effect

• Why do you think that the pink fish kissed the blue fish?
• What made the blue fish happy?
• Why was the the blue fish so gloomy?
• Why did creatures of the ocean try and cheer up the blue fish?

Character Analysis

• Describe the blue fish? 
• Describe the pink fish? 
• What do the two fish have in common?

Personal Connections

• Teachers should ask students what things from the story they can relate to their own lives. For example helping to cheer up a friend, being sad before, having friends, getting a kiss, swimming, etc.

Sequencing Skills

• Teachers can expand on student sequencing skills by asking students to draw several pictures about their favorite parts of the story and then having them put their pictures in order of how they occurred in the story. 

Summarizing the Story

• The teacher can call on students to help summarizing what happened in the story they just read. The teacher should ask each student to add to the summary before summarizing herself/himself about what happened in the story. 

Theme

• The teacher should ask students to write down what they think the purpose or theme of the story was. It could have been the power of friendship, cheering up someone who is sad, etc.

Interactive Fun

• I think it would be nice if it is possible for the teacher and a counter part to act out the story of The Pout-Pout Fish for the class. I found a video a video online of someone reading the story in song and I thought that was really neat, defiantly something children might like. I think students would really enjoy  it and it would give them another visual and audio element to relate back to the story. 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lron1wlXfxU