Deborah Diesen, illus. by Dan Hanna. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $9.99 (10p) ISBN 978-0-374-30450-8
Mr. Fish, the bulgy-eyed hero of Diesen’s long-running series, once suffered from a case of the “dreary wearies.” This time, his mood doesn’t match his moniker—“the pout-pout fish loves Halloween.” In each of Hanna’s underwater scenes, the...
READ FULL REVIEW
Deborah Diesen, Author, Tracy Dockray, Illustrator , illus. by Tracy Dockray. Tricycle $15.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-58246-274-5
Fed up with patronizing, rule-wielding grownups, an entire population of babies organizes a protest march—well, waddle—to town hall (“We're slow, but we'll get there”), where they insist that their parents listen to
READ FULL REVIEW
Deborah Diesen, illus. by Dan Hanna, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-374-30798-1
In this sequel to The Pout-Pout Fish, Mr. Fish promises Ms. Clam that he will retrieve her lost pearl, but as he swims closer to the dark sea bottom, "his heart flit-fluttered." With Miss Shimmer's help, however, he may find the pearl—and his inner...
READ FULL REVIEW
Deborah Diesen, illus. by Dan Hanna. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-374-35549-4
Holiday shopping can get anyone down, and “a certain gloomy fish” like Mr. Fish is especially vulnerable to retail fatigue. Mr. Fish has several gifts to buy and little time; racing from store to store, he either can’t find the right gift or arrives
READ FULL REVIEW
Deborah Diesen, illus. by Dan Hanna. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $12.99 (20p) ISBN 978-1-250-06392-2
Diesen and Hanna identify 26 aquatic creatures, one for each letter of the alphabet, in this board book spin-off of their Pout-Pout Fish series. A good mix of familiar and less-known specimens are included (“I is for Isopod” appears opposite “J is...
READ FULL REVIEW
Deborah Diesen, illus. by Dan Hanna. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $5.99 (12p) ISBN 978-0-374-30191-0
It’s Halloween, and an unseen narrator wonders if Diesen and Hanna’s characteristically glum-looking Mr. Fish might be among the trick-or-treaters dropping by a leviathan-shaped submarine: “Who’s that ghost?/ Is it you, Mr. Fish?/ Maybe you’re the...
READ FULL REVIEW
Deborah Diesen, illus. by Dan Hanna. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $5.99 (12p) ISBN 978-0-374-37084-8
The “glum-glum” star of The Pout-Pout Fish appears in his first original board book, which touches on basic emotions. A straightforward rhyme guides the story, as the frowny blue fish interacts with a wormlike creature that pokes out from holes in...
READ FULL REVIEW
Deborah Diesen, illus. by Dan Hanna. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-374-36095-5
In repeating, rhymed verse, Diesen recounts Mr. Fish’s first day of school. With big, purple-rimmed eyes and downturned lips, he roams from classroom to classroom, trying to keep up (“The class was doing math,/ And most everybody knew it./ So he...
READ FULL REVIEW
Deborah Diesen, illus. by Mary Lundquist. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-374-30250-4
In an uplifting story about growth, change, and a mother’s love, Diesen draws a gentle parallel between the growth of bulbs—planted by a mother, who is white, and her brown-skinned daughter—and way the daughter’s has herself developed. So much...
READ FULL REVIEW
Deborah Diesen, illus. by Lucy Fleming. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-374-30754-7
In this quiet story by Diesen (the Pout-Pout Fish series),
a child and her grandfather reflect on their autumnal walk: “Squirrels were everywhere, digging holes and hiding acorns. We wondered: Would they remember all those spots later?” The pair—who
READ FULL REVIEW
Deborah Diesen, illus. by Dan Santat. Abrams, $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4197-0844-2
Things could not be going more wrong for the narrator on school picture day, which starts with “the worst case of bedhead ever” and a maple syrup accident, then culminates in some serious paint spattering during art class. What a disaster on the...
READ FULL REVIEW
Deborah Diesen, illus. by Isidre Monés. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-3743-9-1522
Garnering her own spin-off series following The Pout-Pout Fish and the Worry-Worry Whale, Willa Whale returns in this picture book to tackle a school-related anxiety. Despite her gently encouraging teacher’s efforts, Willa never raises her fin...
READ FULL REVIEW
Deborah Diesen, illus. by Dan Santat. Abrams, $4.99 paper (32p) ISBN 978-1-4197-3509-7
In a picture book based on the school photos almost every child has endured, Diesen (the Pout-Pout Fish series) focuses on a boy who plots to ruin his school picture. He wakes up with bed head, which Santat (The Princess and the Pit Stop) captures...
READ FULL REVIEW
Deborah Diesen, illus. by Magdalena Mora. Beach Lane, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-5344-3958-0
This outspoken tribute to suffrage alternates between a contemporary school where voting rights is the topic at hand, and vignettes that portray the signing of the U.S. Constitution and then forward through the many struggles to make “consent of the
READ FULL REVIEW
Deborah Diesen, illus. by Howard Gray. Sleeping Bear, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5341-1052-6
An exuberant quartet of birds serenade a community in Diesen’s rhyming picture book. Starting before dawn, the boisterous foursome is oblivious to the exasperation of an owl (who gives some serious side-eye), a sleepy human family, and other beings.
READ FULL REVIEW
PODCAST
