Fish and Sun by Sergio Ruzzier

Young Fish is cold and bored living under the sea. He tells his mum won't bother with breakfast - he is going to find a different place where it is warmer and more interesting. Up near the surface Fish sees Sun. Sun is warm and best of all Sun is fun! They play hide and seek, and Fish demonstrates his ability to spit out water but then something terrible happens. Sun sinks down and the sky turns red. 

"Sun are you okay? You seem a bit red."

"I know, I'm setting."

Fish returns home to his mum feeling very sad. He has lost his new friend. But wait - tomorrow Fish swims near the surface again. It is a cloudy day and at first he cannot see his new friend. Then the clouds part and yay - Sun is back!

This book has just over 160 words! And it is an example of a very simple graphic novel or as my friend calls them - Toon. The whole plot is told through a simple dialogue and using speech bubbles. AND this book is cheap here in Australia at only AUS$13. Oh, and this book has a satisfying story so it is a book you can read to a child, re-read to a child, and then later they will read it to you! (You cannot say that about silly school reader books or the new phonics books called decodables). Perhaps you could even take turns with your child and read it with two different voices.

The book nearly sparkles with color: The sun-dappled palette is one of warm, eye-catching, and elegant pastel shades. The book’s dialogue is set in bold black text in clean, white speech balloons.  Kirkus Star review

This beginning comic reader is an ideal introduction to the sequential art format, and the guided reading series provides a short tutorial for budding comic fans. Ruzzier presents a delicately designed story of friendship full of intimacy and emotion. His textured watercolors mirror the environment as well as the shifting moods of the lonely Fish. School Library Journal

If you are unfamiliar with this style of book there is a handy guide to reading the speech bubbles on the first page. Kirkus explain this - Like many titles in the series, this one includes a page at the beginning that demonstrates the fundamentals of reading comics, including the order in which panels should be read and the differences between various types of word balloons. Each spread consists of a single panel, with thoughtful separation between the left and right sides.

Fish and Wave from the same series won a Theodore Geisel Honour in 2023. 

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award is given annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year.   The winner(s), recognized for their literary and artistic achievements that demonstrate creativity and imagination to engage children in reading, receives a bronze medal.

There are three more books in this series:

Due out June 11th, 2024

I previously talked about Sergio Ruzzier and his book A letter for Leo (not a Toon or graphic novel). Try to find A letter for Leo it is such a sweet story about friendship and letter writing.

A Letter for Leo

Sergio Ruzzier is a picture book author and illustrator. He was born in Milan, Italy, in 1966, and began his career as an illustrator in 1986. Sergio has written and illustrated many picture books, including Fox and Chick: The Party, a 2019 Geisel Honor Book; Fish and Wave, a 2023 Geisel Honor book; Two Mice; and more. ... His work has won many awards, including the Parents’ Choice Gold Medal for The Room of Wonders and This Is Not a Picture Book!. After many years in Brooklyn, NY, he now lives in a very old house in the Apennine Mountains in northern Italy. 

How the Sun got to Coco's House by Bob Graham

"It had to start somewhere. While Coco slept faraway, the sun crept up slowly behind a hill, paused for a moment, seemed to think twice ... before it plunged down the other side and skidded giddy across the water."

Take a closer look at this wonderful sentence. The word choice is perfect with expressive words such as paused, plunged, faraway, giddy.  Now look at the length of the second sentence and the use of commas. This is a complex sentence. Bob Graham never writes down to his audience.

Here is a quote I read this week from Lauren Child - author the Charlie and Lola books.

"There’s not enough understanding of how sophisticated picture books can be,” said Child, ...“If we don’t understand that, then we don’t understand how amazingly sophisticated children are and that they think very deeply and powerfully about things. And we do them a disservice if we don’t see this.” Lauren Child (The Guardian)

The sun rises and, as a reader, Bob Graham takes us on the journey. We watch as the soft yellow of the sun's rays touch magical things and everyday things. It is caught in the eye of a whale and in the snowy footsteps of a young Jung Su. The delightfully named Lovejoy sees the sun outside the window of the plane as he flies through the skies to visit his grandmother. An old woman living in a tiny room has her shutters closed but we can see slithers of yellow where the shutters meet. Wild animals are woken by the sun and a young boy and his dad, perhaps in a middle eastern country, set off to the market at sunrise. How lovely to think of the sun glinting off the paper boy's bell until eventually the sun reaches Coco's house where, later in the morning, a group of kids can be seen making a snowman. Luckily this is the winter sun and so the snowman, on the final page, stands happily in a spot light of sunshine.

I am a huge fan of Bob Graham and I have talked about many of his books here in the blog. How the Sun got to Coco's House was published in 2015. When you read this book be sure to notice all the trade mark Bob Graham features - flocks of birds, rows of identical city houses, sky scrapers, teddy bears and at least one reference to another Bob Graham book - in this case it is Silver Buttons. 

It’s great to be able to count on something; readers can count on both the sun and (Bob) Graham. Kirkus star review

There's no drama here, no big events or extraordinary characters. Instead, we are offered a gentle, kindly look at life on our world, almost tender in its depictions of the many and varied ways life exists. The Book Bag

Even adults have difficulty understanding time differences around the world.  The very best book, in my view, on this topic is All in a Day: