“The Pout-Pout Fish”
By Deborah Diesen and Dan Hanna; Farrar Straus Giroux, unpaged
I have a suspicion, on this fine Sunday, that there might be some sad faces sitting around the breakfast table. It’s the last day of August, and even though we’re likely to have nice weather for a while longer, reaching the end of August feels like saying goodbye to summer. So, if you or someone you know is feeling a little melancholy today, it might be the calendar’s fault.
Or, it might be the fact that for many of us a brand new school year starts this week. Summer leaving, school starting — that’s a double-whammy of woe! If an air of gloom and desolation has descended upon your household, perhaps it’s time to read “The Pout-Pout Fish.”
Taking glumness to a whole new depth, the pout-pout fish — drawn with large, bulging eyes and a wide, down-turned mouth — cruises the sea with a perpetual pout-pout face. As he “blubs, bluuubs, bluuuuubs” about, fellow sea creatures try to adjust Mr. Fish’s attitude. First a clam, then a jellyfish urge the gloomy fish to perk up, but each time he just somberly replies, “I’m a pout-pout fish / With a pout-pout face, / So I spread the dreary-wearies / All over the place.”
Another ocean-dweller, a “slightly impolite” squid, squelches, “Hey, Mr. Fish, / You kaleidoscope of mope, / How about a smile? / A little joy? A little hope?” But once again he frowns and blubs, and yes, you’ve got it, “spreads the dreary-wearies all over the place.” Crabs, snails, and sea snakes observe these interventions with happy expressions, but again and again, happiness turns to alarm as they watch Mr. Fish “bluuuuub” his way to the sea floor.
