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Fish
Cover of Fish
Fish
Borrow Borrow
A compelling novel that touches upon the hardships that refugees face and their resilience in the most dire of situations, “celebrat[ing] the human spirit and inherent kindness” (School Library Journal).
 
    My story starts the day that my parents told me we must leave our adopted home forever. Because of the soldiers and the drought we barely had enough to eat and we could no longer stay to help the people in our village.
   The journey would be hard—to cross the mountains and get to the safety of the border and the people there who could help us. But right before we were leaving, I saw a fish in a small brown puddle and I knew I had to take it with me. Yet when I put the fish in the pot, I never realized what we would have to face. It never occurred to me to leave Fish behind.
    A subtle and sophisticated exploration of life, the strength of humanity, and survival in an unforgiving world, Fish is a story that will teach those who doubt that, when hope is almost extinguished, miracles can happen.
ALA Notable Children's Book Choice
Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
Winner of the Fidler Award

[STAR] “Matthews allows just enough detail—and heart—to make miracles feel possible.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
 
An amazing book.”—The Washington Post
 
“Exciting and filled with crises and adventure… it is a story that celebrates the human spirit and inherent kindness.”—School Library Journal
 
“Matthews is a compelling new voice.”—VOYA
A compelling novel that touches upon the hardships that refugees face and their resilience in the most dire of situations, “celebrat[ing] the human spirit and inherent kindness” (School Library Journal).
 
    My story starts the day that my parents told me we must leave our adopted home forever. Because of the soldiers and the drought we barely had enough to eat and we could no longer stay to help the people in our village.
   The journey would be hard—to cross the mountains and get to the safety of the border and the people there who could help us. But right before we were leaving, I saw a fish in a small brown puddle and I knew I had to take it with me. Yet when I put the fish in the pot, I never realized what we would have to face. It never occurred to me to leave Fish behind.
    A subtle and sophisticated exploration of life, the strength of humanity, and survival in an unforgiving world, Fish is a story that will teach those who doubt that, when hope is almost extinguished, miracles can happen.
ALA Notable Children's Book Choice
Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
Winner of the Fidler Award

[STAR] “Matthews allows just enough detail—and heart—to make miracles feel possible.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
 
An amazing book.”—The Washington Post
 
“Exciting and filled with crises and adventure… it is a story that celebrates the human spirit and inherent kindness.”—School Library Journal
 
“Matthews is a compelling new voice.”—VOYA
Available formats-
  • OverDrive Listen
  • OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
Languages:-
Copies-
  • Available:
    1
  • Library copies:
    1
Levels-
  • ATOS:
    5.4
  • Lexile:
    980
  • Interest Level:
    MG
  • Text Difficulty:
    3 - 6


 
Awards-
Excerpts-
  • From the book

    ONE

    This story starts with the day I found the fish.

    I was standing about with nothing to do, by the huge puddle I called a pond. Dad said it wasn't a proper pond, because the floody rain had left it there by accident, and it would disappear again soon.

    I said, "What is it then? Because it's too big to be a puddle."

    Dad had to agree I was right. He is quite tall, and it was as wide each way as three Dads if you laid them out head to toe, in a line.

    At least, it had been that big. It had been shrinking every day since the rain had stopped, and now I realized that it had become the puddle that Dad had always said it was.

    Anyway, I was standing about, as I said, with a stick in my hand poking at things, because there was nothing else to do. I couldn't swish the stick in the water because I couldn't get close enough to the edge. The mud was terrible. I had already fallen over in it three times and my clothes were covered in it. I wasn't worried about what my parents would say because they never minded, they were so busy anyway. Now that the rain had stopped, we could dry things again.

    So I stood in the last patch of sticky mud before it turned into the liquid patch, and hit at some bits of green poking out of the water's edge.

    All of a sudden there was a ripple and a flash, and a big fish leapt out of the brown water, making a rainbow in the spray as it flew in an arc and landed back—splash!—in the water again.

    I had been feeling very gloomy a moment before. Now I stood and blinked and stared. Nothing moved. I wanted to see the fish again. The glow of the colors had flooded my eyes, like when you open the curtains on a lovely sunny day. I had a warm feeling all through, despite the mud.

    I put one foot forward and tested the ground a bit further in. I had old leather sandals on and bare feet, but you wouldn't have known it. The mud had made big, oozy mud clogs around each foot.

    I wanted the ground to be safe to walk on, because I so wanted to find that fish. But it wasn't safe—I knew I'd get stuck if I got any closer, and I was quite a way from the house, and maybe no one would hear me call and no one would come looking till teatime. I walked all around the edge, just in case, but it was the same everywhere.

    Very slowly, because it is hard to walk in oozy mud clogs, I walked back up the rough earth path to the house.

    Dad was there, because it was his turn to look after me and do the tea. He looked tired and dusty. We hadn't got much water for things like washing, in spite of all the rain.

    We were a funny family—not like the ones in the books I read, which we'd brought from our own country.

    That was one thing that was different about us for a start—we didn't come from the country we were living in now. Mum and Dad had brought me with them when I was little. They had come to this country to help the people, who were having a hard time.

    And they were having a hard time, I can tell you.

    First, it was boiling hot, but not like the summers in our home country. This hot was dusty hot, with no green growing anywhere. There had been bits of bushes and wispy dry grass in the beginning, I can remember, but after a while even that had gone. I had stroked the goats and the donkey who'd come to nibble at it. Then they stopped coming and I missed them and asked why they didn't visit anymore.

    Mum had said, "Because there's no more grass and leaves." She had pushed her hands through her hair when she said this, and had looked so tired and sad, I was surprised. I didn't know she'd liked the animals visiting too.

    The boiling hot had stayed for what...
About the Author-
  • L. S. Matthews first novel for young readers, which won the Fidler Award. She is also the author of A Dog for Life, Lexi, and The Outcasts. She lives and writes in England, where she lives with her husband and two children.
Reviews-
  • AudioFile Magazine In an unnamed country, a child of unspecified age and gender, nicknamed Tiger, flees the ravages of war with the help of aid-worker parents, a wise and compassionate guide, a burro, and a fish that Tiger has rescued from a drying puddle. Danger lurks around every bend--soldiers, bandits, inhospitable terrain, lack of food and water. Despite the bleakness of the story, Matthews allows us into a world that can yet be saved by kindness. Jenna Laima's narration shines. Her subtle delivery perfectly captures the anguish and terror of Tiger's situation. The absence of overdramatization enhances the power of this quiet story of bravery and growth born of desperate situations. S.G. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
  • Publisher's Weekly

    Starred review from May 31, 2004
    "The story starts with the day I found the fish," states the deceptive opening of this debut novel, an allegory grounded in remarkably tactile storytelling. The child narrator, whose name, gender and age are concealed by the nickname Tiger, has found the fish in a mud puddle, after a torrential downpour in the unnamed, drought-ridden and war-torn land where the narrator's parents are relief workers. Spare as the prose is, it teems with evocative details (e.g., when Tiger discovers the Fish, "The glow of the colors had flooded my eyes, like when you open the curtains on a lovely sunny day"). But as war encroaches, Tiger's parents engage a man called the Guide (he tells Tiger his name is too difficult to pronounce) and his donkey to lead them across the border. The Guide respects the child's wish to save the Fish and suggests Tiger transport it in a lidded pot. As the Guide and Tiger's family make a dangerous journey through the mountains, the allegorical elements of the novel take on dramatic import (e.g., the fish changes size to fit the containers available—a water bottle; even Tiger's mouth at one desperate point), and readers can bring their own interpretation and experience to the symbolism embedded here. In keeping the narrative so carefully attuned to a child's perspective, Matthews allows just enough detail—and heart—to make miracles feel possible. Ages 10-up.

  • School Library Journal

    November 1, 2004
    Gr 4-8-Tiger and his presumably British parents live in a war-torn, drought-ravaged, unnamed country, providing help and medical attention to the poverty-stricken villagers in this novel by L.S. Matthews (Delacorte, 2004). As the political situation worsens, the family must leave the country. Unfortunately, the borders have been closed due to masses of refugees. Thus begins an incredibly arduous journey across an arid, mountain-strewn land. The addition of Guide, who lost his family in the war, and his reliable donkey makes the group complete. Tiger narrates the tale. On the day they must leave, the child finds a little fish in what was once a pond, that is still alive. The continued survival of Fish, who Tiger brings on the journey, becomes of utmost importance and symbolic of his own and the group of traveler's survival. All of the players are well drawn, particularly Tiger, who views the adults' actions with varying reactions-bewilderment, irritation, dry humor, and loving acceptance. The travelers encounter a number of dangers, including a trio of vicious soldiers and the mud flats that can swallow a person whole. Jenna Lamia narrates in a way that successfully keeps up the conceit of whether Tiger is a boy or a girl. she flawlessly maintains the British accent and brings the endearing narrator to life. This is a highly recommended recording, both as an allegorical tale about the effects of poverty and war and as a treatise on the perseverance and righteousness of human and animal spirit.- B. Allison Gray, John Jermain Memorial Library, Sag Harbor, NY

    Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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L.S. Matthews
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