June 10, 2024
When Daisy’s family attends the fair she loves, held during her favorite month—October—Daisy’s sister Mary wins a stuffed koala and brother Benjy earns a whistle. Daisy, meanwhile, garners a peculiar fish in a plastic bag, with “too many fins and scales like leaves, a head too big for his tail.” Digitally finished pen, ink, and watercolor spreads by Marwan (Where Butterflies Fill the Sky) have a dreamy, Kandinsky-esque feel, with bright reds fading into pinks and greens, lavenders and mauves. Mary calls the fish weird, but Daisy doesn’t mention her own jealousy of Mary’s koala. “Don’t worry,” she tells the fish, whom she calls October. “You are the best fish.” But October rapidly outgrows one glass bowl, then a larger one. He’s soon in the bathtub, and Daisy has to find another, better place for her charge. Daisy is faithful to her unprepossessing prize, and Arden (the Small Spaces series), making a picture book debut, fittingly rewards this loyalty throughout an unexpected series of events that focuses on bonds and transformations established through tending. The family is portrayed with light brown skin; background characters are shown with various skin tones. Ages 4–8.
Starred review from July 1, 2024
In novelist Arden's picture-book debut, a bizarre-looking fish has an unforgettable impact on a young girl. October is Daisy's favorite time of the year; she loves "cider and pumpkins, wet leaves and woodsmoke, and most importantly, the fair." This year, she wins an odd prize at a fishing booth: an aquatic creature with "too many fins and scales like leaves" and "a head too big for his tail." Her family dubs him "weird," but after bringing him home in a bag of water, Daisy instantly bonds with him and names him after her favorite month. By the next morning, October has grown rapidly, prompting Daisy to move him to the bathtub, which still isn't big enough. October fixes Daisy with a sad, piercing blue-eyed stare, so she moves him to the lake in front of her house, where he's free to live his best life as the magical water dragon he is. Arden's lyrical, conversational text emphasizes the strong bond between Daisy and her new pet despite their limited time together; she makes clear that caring for another living being can alter us forever. With thick brushstrokes and a cool palette dominated by blues and browns, Marwan's stunning pen, ink, and watercolor illustrations capture this unconditional nurturing bond, the concept of metamorphosis, and the transformative nature of autumn. Daisy and her family are tan-skinned. A deeply empathetic look at the magic of love and compassion. (Picture book. 4-7)
COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
September 1, 2024
Grades K-3 In autumn, at the fair, Daisy is surprised to win a fish in a bag--an evidently weird fish, with ""too many fins and scales like leaves, a head too big for his tail."" She names him October and promises him a good life. But then he outgrows his fishbowl. And he outgrows the bathtub. And soon, Daisy is forced to move October to the lake beside her home. Upon returning there one day, she discovers that the weird fish has actually been a water dragon all along, and the massive beast, her friend for life, takes her about the lake. This debut picture book from popular novelist Arden incants a spell of weird individuality and wonder, though its effects fall a bit short of enchantment. Both Arden's text and Marwan's whimsical watercolors intrigue at first with detail and depth, but as things progress, the story plateaus into a predictable mold, and the visual climax--a classic trope of small child meeting wondrous beast--falls flat. Nonetheless, kids may find the style and premise alluring.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
July 1, 2024
Daisy wins a fish at her beloved fair and names him October after the month the fair takes place. He's odd-looking, "but he was her fish, her very own." When October grows too large for his bowl, then for the bathtub, and finally for Daisy's house, she must make a difficult choice. This bittersweet story (with a happy ending) of showing love by letting something go is accompanied by distinctive, loose-lined illustrations created in pen, ink, and watercolor and finished digitally.
(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)