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A Fish to Feed (Small Talk Books) Board book – June 30, 2015

by Ellen Mayer (Author), Ying-Hwa Hu (Illustrator)

21

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***A board book with a special feature!
A father and his child go shopping, searching for a pet fish. They find and talk about many things along the way, but where is the fish? Toddlers will love searching for that special fish. Adults can learn ways to support children's language and speech development from A Fish to Feed.

Small Talk Books ® are playful stories celebrating diversity while featuring young children and their parents talking and having fun together. The books show families how to build young children's language through conversation, during everyday small moments together. Frequent small talks add up to big learning gains for young children!

Adult characters in the stories model fun and enriching ways to talk with babies and young children. In A Fish to Feed, the father talks with his toddler about what interests the child. He responds to the child's two words in different ways that all provide the child with more language.

Each book in the series also contains a note by early childhood language and literacy expert Dr. Betty Bardige, author of Talk to Me, Baby! How You Can Support Young Children's Language Development.

Reading age

Baby - 3 years
Print length

18 pages
Language

English
Dimensions

5.75 x 0.5 x 5.75 inches
Publisher

Star Bright Books
Publication date

June 30, 2015
ISBN-10

1595727078
ISBN-13

978-1595727077
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Cynthia L Smith
347
Paperback
62 offers from $2.35
Karen Chinn
126
Paperback
Teachers' pick
94 offers from $1.22
Deborah Da Costa
23
Paperback
67 offers from $1.30
Mary Hoffman
147
Paperback
27 offers from $1.88
Ellen Mayer
27
Hardcover
11 offers from $1.50
Ellen Mayer
11
Hardcover
10 offers from $2.49

Editorial Reviews

Review

A young tot buys a fish with her father.This board book's narrative describes the sea rch for a fish, but the real goal is helping little ones develop their verbal skills. A note for parents on the opening pages outlines the importance of constantly involving a toddler in conversation in order to expand their communication skills. Narrating the day's events and replying back to toddlers' single-word responses with affirmative language is key and readily displayed in the book's narrative. A father has decided to take his daughter out to buy a fish, and the pair pokes around the store before finding the perfect pet. "Look fish! Fish! Fish!" exclaims the enthusiastic African-American toddler (she has fabulous, wild hair). "Yes, I see the toy fish too," replies the dad. "That's a pretend fish to play with, not a fish to swim in our bowl." This is a book best read by little ones that are starting to talk here and there but are still developing vocabulary and sentence structure. A similar title, Red Socks, goes one step down the developmental ladder and is aimed at those that are barely cooing. A straightforward, informative, and joyous read for both parent and child. --Kirkus Reviews

A Fish to Feed is an exciting new board book from the Small Talk Books series to encourage early communication and socialization skills in children from the age of 6 months to 2 years. Featuring interactions between an African American father and young daughter about buying a new live goldfish to care for, A Fish to Feed highlights both illustrations and narrative to focus a child's attention on the subject. In addition, this colorful and imaginative board book has circular cutouts to frame featured pictures, encouraging further interactions and analysis by the early reader, with adult encouragement. In each page, the father explains to his daughter exactly what they are looking for, a live goldfish that they can feed and take home to live in a fishbowl. The child discovers a fish to wear, and a toy fish to play with, but these are not the live fish they are seeking, her father explains. Finally the cutout hole frames a live gold fish swimming in an aquarium in a pet shop, and the girl and her father find their fish to feed. The conversational tone of A Fish to Feed promotes early language development and awareness, and the book's appealing illustrations increase environmental awareness as well as the concept of cultural diversity. A Fish to Feed is a delightful experience to enhance the learning and literacy of very young children. Also highly recommended from this series is a second board book by the same author and illustrator titled Red Socks. --The Midwest Book Review

About the Author

Ellen Mayer is a writer and early literacy home visitor who helps families support their children's language development through books and play. She has a M.Phil. in Sociology and worked as a researcher at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, studying family engagement in education.

Ying-Hwa Hu has illustrated many distinguished picture books, including The Three Billy Goats Gruff published by Star Bright Books. She lives in New York City with her husband, illustrator Cornelius Wright, and their daughter and son.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Star Bright Books; Brdbk edition (June 30, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Board book ‏ : ‎ 18 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1595727078
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1595727077
Reading age ‏ : ‎ Baby - 3 years
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.5 x 5.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,813,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,498 in Children's Word Books
- #1,823 in Children's Daily Activities Books
- #36,607 in Children's Family Life Books (Books)

Customer Reviews:
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Ellen Mayer
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Ellen Mayer is an award-winning author who writes picture books for babies and young children and the grown-ups who read to them. She has written ten books for children, seven of them for her Small Talk Books® series with Star Bright Books. A recent book, GIFT & BOX, released in October 2023 from Knopf Books for Young Readers.
For many years Ellen was an education researcher at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, studying how families are engaged in their children’s learning. She also worked as an early literacy home visitor with young children and their parents in a local affiliate of the ParentChild+ program. Now Ellen volunteers as a visiting children’s book author with public schools and city-run playgroups in her local Cambridge and Somerville, MA communities. Long ago she earned an M.Phil. in Sociology from Columbia University.
When Ellen isn’t writing picture books, you can find her reading them with her young grandchildren. Ellen often collaborates with her musician husband in “Books + Banjo” reading and sing-along programs for young children.
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Ying-Hwa Hu
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Trained to be a classroom teacher, Ying-Hwa Hu entered into picture books by answering a publisher’s search of illustrators for a book series. From then on she continued to illustrate, often collaborating with her husband, Cornelius Van Wright, more than fifty children’s books. Many of her picture books depict life of children from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Hu and Van Wright together launched Pencilmoon Studio https://www.pencilmoonstudio.com/ to showcase their voice in art making. Ying-Hwa's solo debut, Ten Blocks to the Big Wok, (Lee & Low 2022) is a happy and colorful celebration of Chinese culture. Visit https://www.yinghwahu.com/ to learn more.
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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

21 global ratings

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greyhoundgirl

Beautiful book

Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2015

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Like it's sister book, Red Socks, this book presents an everyday occurrence in a way that delights, engages, and teaches. The text is lively and the illustrations show the warm relationship between caregiver and child. This book is great for all caregivers of young children, as well as being a perfect addition to programs that support children's literacy, parenting, child care, and early intervention. The little surprise inside is guaranteed to keep children coming back for more.

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2019

Didn’t like the ending

Concept was great

Some great vocabulary and some prompts for parents
Sturdy pages with cutouts young children love
Bright illustrations

Story highlighting a father - no mother present

Love the intro

Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2016

Verified Purchase

I bought this book, along with Ellen Mayer's other title, RED SOCKS, to give to our friends who recently had a baby. What a perfect gift! They loved both of these books and said they are quickly becoming their child's two favorite books. I highly recommend both titles!

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Tiffany

My 3 year old loves this story book! The ...

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2015

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My 3 year old loves this story book! The first time I read it to him and then the next thing he did was take it and "read" it out loud to his Play-Doh friends!

2 people found this helpful

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Izillia

wonderful book!

Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2015

My three-year-old daughter loves this book. There’s lots to talk about with her in the lovely illustrations on each page, and the way that the story is linked from page to page via the words and the clever placement of a open circle in some of the pages is very nicely done. We also appreciated that the two characters are non-caucasian (since our daughter is non-caucasian) -- it is pretty hard to find toddler books with people of color featured in them. Perhaps most importantly, the ideas in the brief introduction about how to talk with your child in ways that increase language development (which is also modeled by the father character in the book), in daily life and while reading this book, were really helpful to me. They have actually changed the way that I talk to my daughter now. So it’s a great book for all members of the family!

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Peggy Vaughan

Delightful and educational

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2015

A wonderfully written and illustrated book, perfect for young children and their parents and caregivers. I bought A Fish to Feed and Red Socks as a gift for a young toddler in my extended family. I am impressed with the colorful design and the helpful notes for supporting early learning and language development. The text and illustrations are so well-matched with thoughtful attention to detail on each page. Sharing stories is the ideal way for families to enjoy time with children. The facial expressions show the special parent-child connections and toddlers love this. As an educator, the simple and research-proven ways of talking with children offer ideal examples for teaching literacy concepts to the students in my early childhood development classes. I highly recommend A Fish to Feed and Red Socks.

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Patricia Beth O'Sullivan

A book for all young children and their caregivers

Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2015

As a bibliophile grandmother, mother and former daycare teacher, I seek out books for young children and have read thousands of preschool books. It was a great joy to read Red Socks and A Fish to Feed which, with their beautiful engaging illustrations, model ways for adults to speak with young children. In all of my reading of books for preschoolers I have never run across books that explicitly help parents, caregivers and teachers engage verbally with young children as the children acquire more and more sophisticated language capabilities. That makes these important books – but the best thing about them is how much children will love having these books read to them. All pediatricians should be giving these books to the caregivers of all of their patients.

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2016

I got this book for free at a children's literacy event organized by the city I live in. It has quickly become one of my 1 year old's favorites. He loves pointing out the fish, saying "Look, fish!" and "More fish!" and "Fish swim!", and the holes! What kid doesn't love poking their fingers through holes in books? The tips for expanding a child's responses to help them develop their language are great and it's easy to see how it works in the story.

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S

Part of a great series

Reviewed in Canada on February 9, 2018

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This is a will written book and my 15 month old loves it. It also shows adults how they can speak to babies in order to develop literacy. The examples of how daddy speaks to baby are great.

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A Fish to Feed (Small Talk Books) Board book – June 30, 2015

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