This is a great story told as a myth about the Fish Boy. The Fisherman is fishing in the water and not catching any fish. This is his livelyhood and he needs fish for food and to exchange for goods. Fishboy arrives and asks him to be his Father. Fish Boy has no arms and the Fisherman feels he will be of no use to him. He finally accepts and Fish Boy takes him to where the big fish are. Word reaches another village and the head there wants to see Fish Boy. He and his father travel there and are not treated nicely. The story goes on to how all the Sea Parrots got to St. Lawerence Island. This is told by one of the elders of the tribe. This is a beautiful story with good illustrations and a wonderful tale for young and old. The back has a glossery of some of the terms unfamiliar in the book. I recommend this book for ages 7+.
I received this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

He is part fish and part boy, and he asks the fisherman to be his father. The fisherman is hesitant about that but when the fish boy shows him where the big fish are, he agrees.

Vanita Books and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It has been published and you can grab a copy now.

When they venture to another island to fish, they are met with scorn. They are especially mean to fish boy. So he turns them into sea parrots. When they leave, he reverses the spell but the ones that were mean don't change back. After that, people treated him with kindness, which they should have done in the beginning.

Such a lovely retelling, with gorgeous artwork. An interesting origin story. I was afraid the story would veer off into Armless Maiden territory, but it didn't.

.This was such a cute little children book. I don't read a lot of child books but this one is about iniut and i really wanted to read this. I really enjoyed it. Illustrations are amazing. Story is really lovely but i guess i was wanting more.

Maybe I am too old for this book? I don't know.
Look, I really enjoy the story and the knowledge about Inuit poeple. Because before this book, I have never heard of Inuit & to have that little knowledge is such a nice thing. I enjoy the story, but it's probably something that I would remember for a long time.

I read this book with high expectations and was mildly disappointed. The pictures were beautiful but the story, even though it is an Inuit tale, just did not seem that it would grab the attention of the students in my school library.

This beautifully illustrated book tells the Native American Inuit legend of Fish-Boy. Fish-Boy has no arms, but that does not prevent him from helping his adopted father, Kitmesuk, fish. This lovely story has strong moral messages about passing judgement on people who are different as well as treating guests kindly. It is a great additional for library collections looking for diversity in their offerings. There are several Inuit words introduced in this book that makes the glossary in the back particularly helpful. Targeted for ages 6 – 9.

This was a cute story regarding the treatment of others, in terms of hospitality and physical differences. These positive messages were aided with very appealing and beautifully created illustrations. A glossary was also provided to help young readers have a better understanding of some of the concepts used in this story.

This book is quite imaginative and full of intriguing illustrations, which I'm sure will be very appealing to young children! "Fish-Boy" also contains a positive message to be kind and accept each others' differences.

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Fish-Boy tells an Inuit folk tale with beautiful art and poet text. It is the story of a very special boy gifted in friendship who journeys with his new father. On their travels they experience many hardships and unwelcoming villagers.  Teaches lessons of hospitality, kindness and living with an open heart. 5/5

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Vanita Books through NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I love fairy tales and folk tales, and this Inuit folk tale was a great one. This book had nice illustrations to go along with the story of fish-boy. This is a fun story featuring themes of hospitality, nature, and respect. I like the glossary at the end and the message with suggestions for teaching points. This folk tale is a good story to expand kids' worldviews.

In this beautifully illustrated book, the young Inuit narrator is wondering why there are so many sea-parrots on the stony islands of the far North, and the wise old Teragloona tells him a story about Fish-Boy as an explanation.

The folktale of Fish-Boy is a story about the complex nature of human beings. It proves that someone with a disability can be a useful member of society, but it also shows how a person of power can feel intimidated by others whose skills are superior to his. It teaches us the importance of being kind hosts and helping others whenever we can.

An Inuit tale with lush illustration and a continuing tradition of storytelling.

Learn how Fish-Boy came to live with his father, see how people treated them on their journeys and behold the magic he possesses

A traditional and common story among the peoples of the PNW but well relayed here and I enjoyed seeing/reading this version of it. .

great pictures and a fun story! I enjoyed learning the stories of another culture and the artwork was amazing.

Beautiful illustrations with an enchanting story. Would be a great book to read-aloud to the First Grade age range.

If you, like me, enjoy to read interesting folktales or legends from all over the world, you should try and give this beautiful picture book a closer look.

Our narrator, a young Inuit boy, finds himself on a boat with men from his village, when they are hit by a very thick fog.

They are on their way to one of the Diomedes Islands for trading, which are situated in the Bering Strait. The Bering Strait borders with the Arctic and runs between Russia and the USA and between the two Diomedes Islands runs the International Date Line, which means if you cross from one island to the other you'll have a different date.
Because of it the two islands are also called Tomorrow Island (Big Diomede) and Yesterday Isle (Little Diomede).

As the village elder on the boat knows the waters like the inside of his pocket, they arrive safely, despite not being able to see where they are heading. When they get close to their final destination, the young boy sees a vast amount of sea-parrots or puffins and wants to know why there are so many and that's where our folktale of the little Fish-Boy begins.

We hear how there was once a man, who could not hunt because he was lame, but was able to fish for a living. One day he has a rather strange encounter, a little boy, who looks a bit like a merman, but without arms and with feet instead of fins, emerges from the water in front of him.

The boy tells him, he is lonely and wants to be his son and eventually the old guy is persuaded to take him on, but was it a wise decision? He is already struggling to fish enough to feed himself and now there's the Fish-Boy who has no arms.
Will their bond work and will the two manage to get by without going hungry?

Beautifully illustrated this is a unique story about compassion, resourcefulness, hospitality and differently-abled people and how they are viewed and treated. And a litte bit of magic is thrown in as well.

Some of the expressions are in Inuit language and therefore difficult for young children, but there is a helpful glossary at the end of the book, where we also find interesting ideas for discussion and a short bio of author and illustrator.

The splendid maps at the start and end of Fish-Boy are a huge joy to look at and a wonderful way to get the wee ones interested in the Bering Strait and all things geography in general.

The Fish-Boy is a very beautiful retelling of an old Inuit Folk Tale which will have your kids think differently about people with disabilities and their amazing ingenuity to adapt to their situation and they will also learn how to get from tomorrow to yesterday in a couple of hours.

4 star shaped puffin footprints from me.

Fish-Boy is about an Inuit folk-tale told by Vanita Oelschlager with perfectly sweet illustrations. The story is told by Teragloona (a wise old Inuit man) when the boy asks why there are sea parrots in the ocean.

I didn't have much knowledge about Inuit people or their culture but this folktale was so interesting and magical that it made me curious. The name of the islands are so interesting. The illustrations are so beautiful and they perfectly support the flow of the tale.

I am in love with the art style and the culture of the Inuit people!

However, I think this story is very long and rather wordy for the target audience. Typically, I think picture books aim at kindergarten thru second grade or so. This book caters more towards stronger, advanced readers because of the writing style and the length. Perhaps even a fifth grader would be challenged by this book.

Thanks go to Net Galley and Vanita Books for the DRC, which I received free and early in exchange for this honest review. This book is now available for sale.

My first impression was that this might be a children's book, just from checking the title and jacket, but most readers in the early grades will want pages with fewer words. I recommend this book for upper elementary classrooms and children, but parents and teachers of younger students of high reading ability can also use this story. There's no content that is likely to frighten a sensitive small person. It will also be useful for more intensive reading groups at the middle and high school levels, since it has an accessible vocabulary level that doesn't talk down to its readers.

What I like most about it is the way it cuts across the stereotype of the "Eskimo" that older books present. The story is an Inuit folk tale. It's congenial and has pictures that color the whole page, which adds to interest.

In every classroom there are some young readers that will not voluntarily read fiction, but that will willingly take up nonfiction. I recommend this title for classrooms and school libraries, and for parents looking for multicultural nonfiction to use at home.

5★
“The wise old Inuit, Teragloona, said to me, ‘Soon we will go to the two islands the white trader calls “Diomedes”. They lie between our land and the big land where the fathers of our fathers’ fathers’ fathers came from.’”

What a delightfully told and illustrated Inuit folktale! The boy telling the story goes with Teragloona and the men across the waters between the islands in the Bering Strait. The book opens with a double-page spread showing the Diomedes Islands with their Inuit names, meaning Yesterday Island and Tomorrow Island. Between them lie "The Waters of the Change of Days".

He sees a floating island which turns out to be an enormous mass of puffins! They rise and settle, rise and settle on the water, and when he asks why, Tergloona promises to tell him the story when they return.

This is that story, and an inventive one it is, about a boy who is something like a mermaid but with no arms, and he can live on land. He helps an injured fisherman catch fish and is adopted, but other villages envy this extra help, which leads to some trouble. Eventually, the result is that the bad people become puffins, but of course the real story and the illustrations are far more entertaining and beautiful than these notes.

[My Goodreads review includes a picture of Teragloona.]
[My Goodreads review includes a picture of the boat sailing between the islands.]

As I recall, the author always includes a glossary of terms, when necessary, and some extra information and suggestions for extension activities. I'm going to quote one bit here which is interesting:

“Diomedes: Two small islands between the United States and Russia, separated by the international date line (which, if you could stand there, you’d have one foot in today, one foot in tomorrow!). The Diomedes Islands are also known as Nunarbuk.”

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the copy to review. It's available as Read Now for all NetGalley members. Lovely!