The Magic Fish

Rating:
Summary: a classic tale retold
Review: The Magic Fish is a classic fable of greed that all people (not just children!) should read and familiarize themselves with. An old fisherman and his crabby, demanding wife live by the sea. She demands that he go catch some fish, and the fisherman snags a bug-eyed, yellow talking magic fish. The Fish is really a prince, and the fisherman frees him. His wife, angry that he returned empty handed, demands that he go back and demand a pretty house from the fish. Her wish is granted.

One can see where this leads to: the wife continually demands more and more wonderful things for herself (is this where the term "fishwife" came from??) until the magic fish becomes angry and takes EVERYTHING back. The fisherman, who meanwhile didn't WANT to keep going back to the magic fish, was perfectly happy with what he already had.

"The Magic Fish" is a fable that we simply don't hear enough of these days, and I think it would be good if we heard it more often. Our culture is one where we are constantly encouraged to buy, buy, BUY and our spiritual wealth is often judged by our material wealth: more stuff = happiness. The tale of the magic fish, with it's stout, heavy illustrations by Pels, reminds us that sometimes what we HAVE is all that we NEED, and greed comes before a fall. Highly recommended for all ages.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most important children's books ever written!
Review: The story in this book is one of the most important because it teaches that we should be grateful for what we have. Gratitude seems to be one of the forgotten virtues of our day. The world would be a much better place if everyone had read Magic Fish.

Rating:
Summary: The first book I learned to read! It's still a favorite.
Review: This book has a "forever" place in my heart. As a child I would never tire of listening to my mother read it to me. Imagine her surprise when I was able to read it back to her! (Okay, so I probably had it memorized, but it still felt good to be "reading") I have looked all over for it. I am glad I finally found it.Thank you Amazon.com. I would love to share it with my children.