Papa’s Mechanical Fish

Papa’s Mechanical Fish

Author: Candace Fleming

Illustrator: Boris Kulikov

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade Level: Pre-k to 3^rd grade

“Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a fish? A fish….A fish?”

I do and so does this book character, Papa. He is a deep thinker and likes to invent new things on his workshop which is in his backyard. His family of five supports his invention (as well as the dog) and keeps encouraging him to invent something new. The story is told by his little girl perspective. She lets the readers know all her papas failed invention, yet she supports him 100%. One day when papa has enough of making failed new things, he takes the family fishing. The little girl then asks if he ever wondered what it is like to be a fish. Papa ponders for a while then he races towards his workshop. It is then he begins to make Whitefish, an underwater vessel that lets him swim with the fish. He takes his whole family to the lake so he could try the whitefish. As soon as he gets on the water, the whitefish sinks. But this does not dishearten him, in fact, it motivates him to make safer and better Whitefish II. He again goes to his workshop. When he finally finished, he takes Whitefish II to the lake but alas, that too fails. Then comes Whitefish III, that is better than Whitefish II but not good enough to survive down the lake. Then papa makes something that is grander, better and safer than the rest of the failed Whitefish prototypes. He barricades his workshops and works day and night on his machine. Whitefish IV, he calls it can accompany seven people and also has an air-cooling system. The whole family takes a ride and this time the machine does sink but swims among the fish

The illustrations are great. It is illustrated through readers perspectives. There are loads of close up and wide shot illustration that really makes the readers feel they are in the story. Some of the pages you will see fish that takes over the whole page from the wide shot angle and some of the pages you will see papa, deep on this thought, thinking about the next invention. All the pages are illustrated but the words are always there to accompany these beautiful illustrations. The book has a little surprise at the end. It has a brief history of how the submarine came about and how this story was influenced by the real story of making a submarine!

Thoughts:

The book is amazing. It took me about half the story to realize that papa was on his way to making a submarine! I thought a submarine was something a military made but it is good to know that it was invented by a father that took the kids to an “excursion beneath the waves” just so he could have a quality time with his family! This book other awesome feature is that it has repetition which will be great for the younger students to read. This is an excellent book and for teachers, it will be a fun way to teach history to the children!