The Little Red Fish Book

A little boy enters a library with his grandfather and his little red fish at his side. But when he awakes after falling asleep amidst the library shelves, his fish is missing. Could his little friend have disappeared into that red book over there on the shelf?

Join us in celebrating this stunning debut by first-time illustrator Taeeun Yoo. With dreamlike qualities of early Maurice Sendak and fine etchings that strongly evoke the mysterious and the magical, The Little Red Fish pays homage to imagination and the power of a good book.

Publishers Weekly

Newcomer Yoo's sepia-toned pen-and-inks and watercolor wash, rich with shadows and spidery figures, provide a haunting obligato for her story of a boy's adventure alone in a deserted library. The cloth-covered, jacketless book and handsewn pages suggest the attention to detail and craft found within. Falling asleep among the shelves after his grandfather, the librarian, leaves the room, young JeJe wakes in the moonlight to find that his beloved red fish (which he carries about in a goldfish bowl) has disappeared. "He caught a glimpse of a little red tail flipping high over a shelf and so he followed it." Movement from one of the books on the shelf catches his eye. Inked in vermilion, the red fish and the red book stand out against the neutral background, as a series of wordless spreads follows. JeJe takes the book down, opens it, and is greeted by a fountain of fish just like his. Diving in, he travels through a wintry landscape, then sails across an ocean with a flock of flamingos in an image that recalls Japanese silkscreen landscapes. He and his fish land safely in the library just as JeJe's grandfather returns to fetch him. "He whispered to his fish that they would come back to the library very soon." Like Barbara Lehman's work, of which her fans might be reminded here, Yoo's exhilarating visual images don't really need words. They seem to call to a place beyond language, and shutting the book feels like awakening from a dream. Ages 4-up. (Mar.)