Don't Trust Fish!
This engaging picturebook offers a unique and funny perspective by positioning fish as inherently untrustworthy, with some outlandish but hilarious conspiracy theories included to back it all up.
Lurking under water, where nobody can see them, the idea is that fish are watching over all us humans, scheming our downfall. In fact, there is no end to the narrator’s crazy, paranoid ruminations about fish, including the thought that they hide long legs that they will one day use to take over the world! The angler fish is illustrated as the perfect example of why not to trust fish, glowing brightly like an enticing cave while luring unsuspecting crabs into its mouth. The reader is reminded constantly that, although they may look harmless, it’s important not to be duped by these cunning fish. One of my favourite illustrations shows the typical ‘household’ fish (similar to a goldfish) reporting back to his fish king about what goes on in the land of humans. Yet another shows a fish tunnelling under their fish tank only to emerge out of – yes, you guessed it – a toilet bowl!
It seems we can’t turn our backs on these pesky little guys! A self-aware story that is able to laugh at itself too, admitting towards the end that the artists involved may have ‘got a little carried away’ – but this is just the type of imagination that every child has and every grown-up likes to remember.
