Rainbow Fish and the Great Escape

Rainbow Fish and the Great Escape

Marcus Pfister

NorthSouth Books, 2025

32pp., hbk., RRP $A29.99

9780735845909

For Rainbow Fish and his friends, life was good as they swam through the corals of their reef, their piece of paradise, untouched and unbothered by the world above. Occasionally passing fish would tell them scary tales of a different world where whole shoals of fish suddenly disappeared but to RF and his friends, they were just tales… Until the day a great rumbling shattered the silence of their world and a large floating island hauling an even larger net passed through the reef capturing everything in its path, including RF and his friends! Is this the end of their idyllic life or can they escape?  If so, how?

Even though the first in this series was published nearly 35 years ago in 1992, it remains as popular as ever with little people, clearly evident when I watched a large group of four-year-olds sit entranced as they listened to the original just a few days ago, and didn’t even notice the other kerfuffle that was happening in the room at the time. No one’s eyes shifted from the book and there was lots of talk about being a good friend and sharing as the teacher finished the story and began a discussion.

So this,  the 10th in RF’s adventures, is going to be greeted with the same enthusiasm when I share it with those same little people today.  And I bet they will be able to tell me much about what they already know before we begin!

Once again, Pfister has brought the undersea world into the realm of young readers through his stunning, memorable illustrations as well as using the characters to highlight the plight of those who call the ocean home- in this case the threat of dragnet fishing, a technique where a net is used to sweep a section of the sea to catch everything in its path. While this method of fishing is legal in some places in some circumstances in Australia, it is heavily regulated but that does not mean that RF and his friends, or other species, are safe. Although the audience for whom the story is intended is unlikely to be involved in the practice, nevertheless any stories which raise awareness of the world beneath the waves and spark discussions about how they can do their part in protecting the inhabitants has value, IMO.

But aside from the conservation message, they can learn much about how RF quickly understood that this was not a problem he could solve himself and was able to call on friends for help because of his solid relationships with them.  Sometimes things happen that are bigger than we are and we have to understand and accept that others know things that we don’t, or can do things that we can’t Therefore, asking for help is the smart thing to do.  RF did try to solve the situation by himself but as soon as he realised he couldn’t, he called on others who could.  Such an important lesson to learn.

Looking forward to where this takes us when I share it!