Aquarium by Cynthia Alonso

Aquarium is a story of one young girl's dream to bring home a fish. In her imagination she swims with the fish in the ocean. As she sits day dreaming a bright orange fish leaps onto the jetty. She scoops him into a jar and races home to create an aquarium using every container she can find, each filled with water and connect by tubes and hoses. At the end of the water route she fills her small paddling pool but it is immediately clear the little fish friend needs his freedom. It is such a sweet story moment when she kisses him goodbye before placing him back in the ocean.

I am preparing a talk with Dr Robin Morrow for IBBY Australia as we welcome the IBBY Silent Book collection to our shores. This is a very exciting initiative. There are 67 books in the 2019 Silent Book collection from 16 countries. You can read about some of them in a previous post.

You would expect a 'silent book', or you may prefer the term 'wordless' book, to offer a rich visual experience but Aquarium takes this to another level. I was not surprised to learn that Cynthia Alonso is a graphic designer. The landscape format allows us to see the whole spread of the ocean; the restrained colour palette is summery and slightly retro; and the quality of the paper she has used clearly show how much care and attention she has given to her debut book. Cynthia lives in Argentina and the Portuguese title of this book is Aquàrio.

Have you seen those little videos where people reveal images hidden under a book cover.  Under the dust jacket of Aquarium Cynthia Alonso has filled the space with orange fish. It would be a pity to hide these under library plastic covering. The opening end paper has transparent jars, buckets, vases, glasses and bottles of all shapes and sizes each containing swimming fish. 

On the back end paper we see the little girl from the story swimming in the open ocean where all the fish can swim free. Her swimmers are decorated with the fish we first saw under the dust jacket.

The story is complex enough to be interesting, yet straightforward enough for even the youngest listeners to piece together from the illustrations. Kids Book a Day

Moving and evocative visual storytelling. Kirkus

Silent books

In a year when so many of us were left speechless at the events of the world, there is comfort in finding books that are just as speechless as we. That doesn’t mean, of course, that they don’t have something to say. Elizabeth Bird

You may already be a winner by Ann Dee Ellis

I am really struggling at the moment with suggested ages for many of the Middle Grade books I have been reading. The back cover of this book You may already be a winner suggests ages 10 and up but I feel it would better suit an older audience. Adding to my dilemma Kirkus suggest 8-12. I simply cannot imagine child in Grade 3 or 4 having any understanding or interest in this book. I was pleased to see Lamont books list this as a Secondary school title.

Having said all of that I did enjoy You may already be a winner and in fact I read the whole book in one sitting. Olivia is a day dreamer and her interspersed dreams make this a complex book to read because the lines between reality and her dreaming are often quite blurred. The Breakpoint review said "because of both the form and the content, some middle-schoolers may find it tough going."

In the opening scene Olivia imagines she has sunk to the bottom of the swimming pool, she has died and Troy, the lifeguard, rescues and revives her.  Troy, in her day dream, kisses Olivia. "Though I'd never been kissed, my soft mouth molded to his as he tried to breathe life back into my body."  This sentence alone gives me rise to recommend this book to 11+ along with the fact that Olivia herself is 12 years old.

Olivia lives in a trailer park with her mother and younger sister and a strange assortment of people on the edge. Her father has left the family supposedly to work Bryce Cannon National Park.  One strength in this story comes from the letters Olivia writes to her father pouring out her hopes and daily struggles. There is no money even though her mother is working long hours as a cleaner. They cannot pay day care fees for little sister Berkeley and so both girls are left at home. Olivia knows she is slipping behind with her school work but she tries to set up a daily routine of lessons, art and exercise.

Eventually the school authorities catch up with them. Berkeley cannot go to day care and so Olivia takes her to school and hides her in a supply cupboard. Olivia loves her little sister and she tries to hard to keep everything afloat.

"The bell rang which meant my next class was already starting which meant I wasn't going to get to check on Berkeley which meant she was going to be scared and what if she had to go to the bathroom and I had some crackers in my bag that I'd forgotten to leave with her and what if they'd found her because what if they used that closet even though it looked dusty and smelled like old rags and was clear out of the way but even though that, what if they found her?"

Read this review by Ms Yingling.  Here is a review with more plot details.

I would pair this book with Waiting for Normal - which had a more profound impact on me and Wish upon a Unicorn. You could also look for books by Jacqueline Wilson such as Lily Alone.