Review by Booklist Review
Soft, sketchy artwork in a cool, calm palette sets the tone for this contemplative picture book about a kind, curious girl and her unusually quiet classmate. The girl's inquisitive inner monologue makes up the text, and she wonders to herself about what the boy's voice sounds like, what he thinks about, and how he feels when their classmates tease him. She's eager for a way to connect, and she finds one at a field trip to a science museum: a telephone inside an aquarium revealing the subtle noises fish make. Not only does the girl begin to recognize that there's always more going on under the surface, but the exhibit also becomes a touchstone for the two kids, which turns into a burgeoning friendship. Sualzo's cartoonish figures, with goggle eyes and rounded faces, nicely contrast the serene, layered tones of aqua, dusty pink, and warm yellow. While the suggestion that her classmate is like a fish in an aquarium might confound some, the general message of striving to understand rather than vilify someone different is powerful.--Sarah Hunter Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Horn Book Review
When a new boy turns up at school?a boy who keeps to himself and doesnt speaka girl in his class notices. She senses his loneliness and need for connection, and tries to reach out. Nothing works until the class takes a field trip to a science museum and encounters an interactive exhibit: a fish tank into which a telephone handset has been dropped, and an adjacent rotary phone that allows listeners to hear the fish sending each other messages of danger and messages of love. The girl listens and ponders and all of a sudden she understands: the boy feels like a fish in an aquarium. Back at school, notes are exchanged, a phone call placed, and a friendship forged. Sualzos scratchy illustrations, in sandy beige and muted turquoise, with spots of brown, black, and mauve, give readers a clearly intelligible platform from which to consider Vecchinis more abstruse story arc. The fanciful combination affords readers the same deep understanding the students experience at the museum: immediate, compelling, and beyond linear explanation. Here in the U.S. we have largely moved away from picture books aimed at the mid-to-upper primary grades, and this tender, sweet, offbeat Italian import, with its keen expression of those illuminating moments of metaphorical epiphany, shows us why thats a real shame. thom barthelmess (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A child seems to never say anything at school until a determined classmate gets creative about listening.A young boy's silence at school is a point of fascination for his teachers, other students' parents, and of course, his classmates. One classmate in particular disagrees with other people's assumptions about the boy's reticence, and she disapproves of her classmates' sometimes-cruel gambits to get the boy to speak. Nevertheless, she is just as curious as anyone as to how and why the boy stays so quiet, until she has an epiphany at the science museum, where an exhibit allows her to listen in on fish in an aquarium. Vecchini's first-person narrative lends itself to a natural immediacy that positions readers alongside the protagonist as she considers her classmate's inscrutable silence. While the persistent attempts to uncover the mystery have the potential to exoticize rather than uplift difference, the characters' connection over the deceptively taciturn fish thoughtfully unspools as the boy begins to communicatefirst with a smile and later with a surprise phone call. Sualzo's illustrations deliver emotional dimension with an unassuming color palette and manipulation of perspective and sequential arttruly a narrative in which the visual shares the storytelling reins.A thoughtful consideration of communication and connection. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
