Simon & Schuster Barry the Fish with Fingers

A silly but well written book, all our nieces and nephews have a copy.

This is a cheerful book with a clearly expressed but not heavy-handed message. (MILD SPOILER, BUT I'LL TRUST YOU NOT TO TELL ANY KIDS.) When Barry shows up with his swell fingers it steals the limelight from Puffy, the big-bubble-blowing fish, who gets all envious and mopey. Barry has fun showing off his fingers to the delight of the fishy crowd, and then an exciting event leads him to a reconciliation with the bubble-blower. The ending is a particularly clever resolution in which everyone is a winner.The pictures are bright and appealing. Barry's fingers are stylized, not creepy. (I kept thinking about "fish fingers" on the school lunch menu. That's probably not the exact teachable moment the author was aiming for, but what do I know.) The story is light and zippy. Actually, for a picture book we get a lot of story - Barry's whole fingers thing, the way he connects with old bubble-blower, the way the story wraps up. That's a lot of action, but none of it seems inaccessible to a little reader. And there are a dozen mild positive lessons to be drawn from the tale.The upshot? This feels like a fun, silly and pretty upbeat treat for reading time, and it's certainly a book an adult reading to youngsters could have fun with. A nice find.

I’m not so keen on this book. I don’t think the message is that healthy for kids. Barry has fingers so he can tickle the other fish and play the piano - which makes everyone fawn over him. Puffy the pufferfish gets jealous at the attention Barry gets and is derided for sulking before Barry saves his life and then Puffy comes round to the Barry-love. Usually in a book like this you’d expect a message along the lines that everyone has their own talents and no one is more special than anyone else. But here the message is... Barry is better than the other fish because he had fingers. Not great in my view.

I find it hard to get a book that is unisex so many in my shops are very girly but this is fantastic. Great for all and so fun to read together. Will keep my eye out for any more follow on books.

My daughter really wanted this book but I don’t like it. Weak story & some wording in there which I don’t think we should be encouraging children to use! “I hate Barry’s fingers, they’re stupid” Wouldn’t recommend.