For us, the depressing mystery was our children’s fascination with a book called Rainbow Fish. If you’re unfamiliar with this book, it’s about a fish (Rainbow Fish) with dazzling colors and scales that makes the other plain fish jealous. The plain fish ask Rainbow Fish for his shiny scales, and when RF declines, the plain fish ostracize him. RF goes to the “Wise Old Octopus” for advice, and he’s told that he should give away his scales for even though he will no longer be the most beautiful fish in the sea, he will at least be happy. RF takes the advice and gives out his shiny scales, keeping only one for himself. The formerly plain fish swim about smugly, and RF is no longer alone.
This story rankles in about a hundred ways, the most obvious being that we shouldn’t be teaching folks, especially young girls, that happiness can be found in the eyes of others, and that one should hand out (literal) bits of oneself to fit in.
But we read it over and over and over because our kids wanted us to. We pretty much knew that they kept bringing this book over to our laps because it was so beautifully done, with a Scandinavian modernist font and foil scales that really did sparkle on the page and feel slick and good when you ran your fingers over them. We sure were pleased when we could finally slip it into a donation box without anyone missing it.
For us, the depressing mystery was our children’s fascination with a book called Rainbow Fish. If you’re unfamiliar with this book, it’s about a fish (Rainbow Fish) with dazzling colors and scales that makes the other plain fish jealous. The plain fish ask Rainbow Fish for his shiny scales, and when RF declines, the plain fish ostracize him. RF goes to the “Wise Old Octopus” for advice, and he’s told that he should give away his scales for even though he will no longer be the most beautiful fish in the sea, he will at least be happy. RF takes the advice and gives out his shiny scales, keeping only one for himself. The formerly plain fish swim about smugly, and RF is no longer alone.
This story rankles in about a hundred ways, the most obvious being that we shouldn’t be teaching folks, especially young girls, that happiness can be found in the eyes of others, and that one should hand out (literal) bits of oneself to fit in.
But we read it over and over and over because our kids wanted us to. We pretty much knew that they kept bringing this book over to our laps because it was so beautifully done, with a Scandinavian modernist font and foil scales that really did sparkle on the page and feel slick and good when you ran your fingers over them. We sure were pleased when we could finally slip it into a donation box without anyone missing it.