gone fishin'

Another book that I remember quite fondly from my childhood will wrap up our beach week here on The Book Children. I'm not really sure why this book stands out to me so much. Of all the things I enjoyed doing outdoors as a child, fishing isn't something I even remember doing more than once or twice. The book I remember looked a bit different than this version, especially the cover. But when I saw that it had been reprinted in hardback in 2005, I just had to snatch up a copy.

The same simple, sweet story I remember drew in my own kids. Finn most recently discovered this book on a sibling's bookshelf so we've been reading it frequently in the last few weeks. I love the sparse yet expressive illustrations that made Crocket Johnson famous. Interestingly, I knew and loved this book before any of the Harold books, and my first thought upon meeting Harold was that he looked so much like the kid from the The Little Fish That Got Away.

Another component of the book that I think children find really appealing is the repetition. The GREAT GREAT big fish comes, then the GREAT big fish comes, then the BIG fish comes then the little fish comes and then they come around again. And they swim around and around and around and around. I've caught a least a couple of our kids quoting the book to themselves very soothingly since the words from page to page are relatively predictable.

Then, of course, there's the ending. What little kid isn't thoroughly impressed by the boy eating the entire GREAT GREAT big fish all by himself?!