The Rainbow Fish

Beautiful Book, Questionable Message
No rating because I haven't re-read this in well over two decades.

This cycled into my recommended books, which is inevitable since I keep reading children's books. I couldn't find it at the library, nor could my friend who lives in another area, and I'm not about to pay fifteen bucks for a book I have laying around in storage somewhere. So, I haven't been able to fully re-read it. I have, however, been able to call upon memories and read articles and reviews to refresh what I couldn't recall.

Here's the thing: as a child, my thought process basically went shiny, beautiful fish, whee - and that's it. Something, something sharing. Something, friendship... I never looked too deeply into it because I was just a little kid. I do recall my mom trying to steer me toward other books, but I don't think she ever admitted it being due to anything more than her growing tired of me constantly picking the pretty book with the shiny fish. (What do you want from me? I was, like, four.)

But as an adult, looking back on the story this book tells, I'm more than a little horrified. I don't think it aims to be the way it is, and I don't think child logic will see it the way adults do. I just think there's some very unfortunate messaging behind the choice to make the poor fish have rainbow scales that others covet and have to give those cruel, jealous fish most of his scales to earn their friendship.

Scales aren't just belongings; they're part of a fish. He had to give away pieces of himself - destroy what makes him unique and allow others to appropriate it onto themselves by taking it away from him - just to make friends who liked him. That's more than a little messed up. It's outright horrifying, in fact!

I think the author was aiming more for the scales being like belongings, since he still has normal, not-shiny scales beneath the rainbow ones in the art, but I'm not sure. (I mean, it's not like they could've drawn blood and gore to indicate him ripping off his scales realistically, right?) Even then, is it really a good message to teach kids they have to give away their prized possessions to buy friendship and that doing so is ‘sharing'? I don't think so. There's a line between sharing because you care, sharing because others are in need, and sharing because you feel obligated by peer pressure to buy others' friendship with the things you own.

Actually, come to think of it, I struggle sometimes with saying no when someone wants something of mine that I would rather not give away. I doubt this book - or at least this book alone - is to blame, but it does make me wish I could go back and re-examine the way my generation was taught about sharing and whether there weren't accidental “be a doormat or nobody will like you” undertones...