cover image Rainbow Fish to the Rescue!

Rainbow Fish to the Rescue!

Marcus Pfister. NorthSouth, $18.95 (24pp) ISBN 978-1-55858-486-0

Rainbow Fish, that glittery piscine, is back, this time with another moral to impart. Readers will remember how he learned to share in the original tale (The Rainbow Fish), doling out his shimmering scales to all the have-nots, and this story finds him and his sparkling school of friends at play--but bent on excluding a little striped fish who wants to join in all their games. Rainbow Fish is a little ashamed, remembering as he does what it feels like to have no friends. So when a shark appears and imperils the dejected interloper, it's Rainbow Fish who leads the rescue mission. The main appeal of Pfister's books is not the stories but the pretty pictures--pastel watercolors peppered with holographic foil-stamp overlays that glimmer and gleam--and this new volume amply serves up more of same. Ages 5-8. (Sept.)