Phone Call with a Fish

by Silvia Vecchini, Sualzo (Illustrator)

Overview

A story for anyone who has felt like a fish out of water 

There’s a boy in class who doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t yell when a student steps on his foot, and he writes his answers to the teacher’s questions on the board. One of his classmates is trying to understand why he’s so quiet, but she can’t figure it out. But then one day the class goes to the science museum, and she discovers a phone with an aquarium full of fish on the other end of the line. And the fish, as it turns out, aren’t silent after all—they just have their own way of communicating. 

This empathy-building story will encourage readers to approach others with compassion and understanding.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467464437
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	09/05/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	48
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Silvia Vecchini is the author of several picture books and young adult novels, many of which were illustrated by her husband, Antonio Vincenti. Her books have been translated into many different languages, including French, Spanish, Polish, and Korean. In addition to being a writer, she enjoys conducting writing workshops for children and teens. She lives in Italy.

Sualzo (Antonio Vincenti) is a would-be saxophonist and a self-taught illustrator. Many of the books he has illustrated have been written by his wife, Silvia Vecchini, including Breathless (Tunué), which won the Boscarato Prize and Orbil Balloon Prize in 2012. Sualzo lives in Italy. Visit his website at www.sualzo.com.

Editorial Reviews

2018-07-30

A child seems to never say anything at school until a determined classmate gets creative about listening.

A young boy's silence at school is a point of fascination for his teachers, other students' parents, and of course, his classmates. One classmate in particular disagrees with other people's assumptions about the boy's reticence, and she disapproves of her classmates' sometimes-cruel gambits to get the boy to speak. Nevertheless, she is just as curious as anyone as to how and why the boy stays so quiet, until she has an epiphany at the science museum, where an exhibit allows her to listen in on fish in an aquarium. Vecchini's first-person narrative lends itself to a natural immediacy that positions readers alongside the protagonist as she considers her classmate's inscrutable silence. While the persistent attempts to uncover the mystery have the potential to exoticize rather than uplift difference, the characters' connection over the deceptively taciturn fish thoughtfully unspools as the boy begins to communicate—first with a smile and later with a surprise phone call. Sualzo's illustrations deliver emotional dimension with an unassuming color palette and manipulation of perspective and sequential art—truly a narrative in which the visual shares the storytelling reins.

A thoughtful consideration of communication and connection. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews