The+Pout+Pout+Fish

Diesen, D. (2008). //The pout-pout fish//. New York, NY: Farrar Straus Giroux.

//The Pout-Pout Fish// is the story of a Mr. Fish who never seems to be happy and his friends all around the ocean try and help him. As the story evolves, Mr. Fish transforms from a pout-pout fish to a kiss-kiss fish because as he learns being sad and dreary is not his whole life.
 * Summary:**


 * Grade Level:** PS-1
 * Reading Level:** 3

2. Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge 2.3.1 Connect understanding to the real world 2.4.3 Recognize new knowledge and understanding
 * Standards for 21st Century Learner:**

4.Pursue personal and aesthetic growth 4.3.1 Participate in the social exchange of ideas, both electronically and in person 4.4.4 Interpret new information based on cultural and social context

A rhythmic, rhyming text introduces a fish with a mouth that turns down at the corners and a correspondingly gloomy attitude. One by one, his ocean-dwelling friends try to cheer him up, but he resists their efforts with a pessimistic, yet snappy refrain: "I'm a pout-pout fish/With a pout-pout face,/So I spread the dreary-wearies/All over the place." Finally, a mysterious female fish approaches and silently plants a kiss "upon his pout." He is instantly struck by the epiphany that he is actually a "kiss-kiss fish/With a kiss-kiss face/For spreading cheery-cheeries/All over the place!" and demonstrates his newfound outlook by smooching his friends. Though the bouncy rhythm is appealing, many of the rhymes are forced, and the poetry doesn't always scan. On the positive side, the cartoon illustrations of undersea life are bright and clean and the protagonist's exaggerated expressions are entertaining. The layout is attractive, and the three-panel sequences showing the fish moping around during the refrain are especially well done.-Rachael Vilmar, Eastern Shore Regional Library, MD
 * School Library Journal Review 2008: (from Mackin)**