I always feel weird reviewing a folk tale because it's a culture's story but I enjoyed this one. This was even more enjoyable though because of the gorgeous, textured illustrations, that caught my eye from the start. I was bored by the last few pages, but those illustrations made me keep trucking through. It was a unique story that shows a bit of a culture that is not heard about frequently in my country.

#Fishboy #Netgalley

I am really enjoying all of the diversity we are seeing in children's literature these days, I think it's so important. I enjoyed reading this Inuit folk tale, I found it interesting and charming. The artwork is different and lovely. Overall, just an enjoyable reading experience for me. I would recommend this title to anyone who wants to teach their children about other cultures.

I enjoyed this delightful children's graphic book. I like this Inuit tale that is full of Inuit words, places, and animals. I love the dictionary for new words in the back of the book. Older children will enjoy this.

Fish Boy is an Inuit Folk Tale that teaches us about hospitality, differences, and values.

I enjoyed the art in this book. The images were bright, simple and beautiful in depicting this story.

I enjoyed the story. I was a bit confused sometimes but I know some things may be lost in translation or be easier to understand when heard instead of read.

Learning about other cultures and people is so fascinating and I love a children’s book that advocates this.

Vanita Oelschlager's Inuit folk tale, "Fish-Boy," is the story of an armless boy from the sea who comes to Kitmesuk and how he helped the man who took him in, and became his father, to fish and find all that he needed. The Fish-Boy then meets the people from the Narrow Waters and St. Lawrence Island, but he is mistreated and asked to leave their lands. The people even try to kill him. However, the Fish-Boy is too smart and has special abilities that they don't know of, so he escapes and he turns the people of St. Lawrence Island into puffins (or sea-parrots).

The story teaches children about hospitality and inviting people who are different than you to spend time with you. These are important lessons for children in an increasingly diverse landscape in Western civilization. This story includes helpful insights for kids to understand.

I received this eBook free of charge from Vanita Books via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. I did not receive any fiscal compensation from either company for this review and the opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.

Fish Boy

Rising up out of the waters of the Bering Strait a boy interrupts a grouchy, preoccupied fisherman with the startling claim that Fish Boy choses him for his own father. This is no ordinary boy. Fish Boy has power and magic that far belie his graceful, armless form. Despite the extraordinariness of this event, the fisherman complies with Fish Boy’s claim. So starts a tale of an Inuit elder’s story around the communal fire told to a youngster in the north sea region and, as we snuggle in, readers. Set in a home land of The Diomedes Islands (Nunarbuk, the Greater island and Ignaluk, the Lesser island) which “float” in The Waters of the Change of Days, this is a delightful origin story of sea parrots (Atlantic Puffin) and how people ought to treat each other.

The folktale is deftly told, with a clever punch at the end, making a reader think twice about the listening boy. I enjoyed the careful explanations of the names and places of each new character as they were introduced. The tension level rises as it appears the fish boy might be hurt, and that is well handled in the roll out of the tale. At the end is a handy “New words for young readers” helpful for young and old readers, along with a message from the author and the artist, both welcome bonuses to an already great book.

The artist’s textured and color-infused style evoked in me a feeling consistent with my imagination’s idea of Inuitness. The child within me was pleased to see the artist’s nod to a child’s self-centric perception – the eyes of the boys are open and seeing – the eyes of the adults are greyed out and seem blind or seem non-seeing. The colors spill across each page, dark and deep for indoor and deepsea environments, and bright with movement for outside and sky views.

I enjoyed this book, and hope to find a copy for my young friends.

Sincere thanks to author Vanita Oelschlager, Vanita Books and NetGalley for a copy of Fish Boy to read and review!

This Inuit folk tale follows a tribe as they move from one island to another. Vanita Oslschlager shares this folk tale that is full of friendship, kindness, and the fascinating events within nature. This story is packed with adventure, virtue, and the truth that kindness and empathy are acts of magic that we can all experience.

This was a beautifully illustrated story of a retelling of an Inuit Folk tale. The story is actually a story within a story of a young boy being told why there are so many Sea Parrots (Atlantic puffins) on the stony islands of the far North. The story was well told with beautiful illustrations. I do believe it would be more suited for slightly older children as the story is rather advanced, smaller children may need explanations for some harder words and parts in the story.

The author has placed a glossary at the back of the book for some of the harder unknown words and has also added some teaching points for readers. Some points that could be made while reading this book are hospitality, treatment of strangers, elder guidance, among other things. You'll also find illustrated maps at the front and back of the book. Overall it's a wonderful story to read and to help young readers learn some valuable lessons.

Pros: This books has a lot of adventure and will take you on a journey to help young people learn about kindness. It was delightful to see the mature people passing down wisdom to the younger generation. While this is fiction, most of the time, it felt like reality. Fish Boy is a culturally affirmative book that will do well in the library forums.

Cons: This book has several harsh words to pronounce. My kid and I like to read books together, so the feedback is from a young person's perspective. The drawings were confusing, and the story took a turn for the worse. My kid states that it is too harmful to be a young person's book.

This book had beautiful illustrations and a wonderful concept, but the writing was a bit complex and lengthy for a picture-book audience. I am very hesitant to say books should be simplified for children because I think children's books are usually over-simplified nowadays; however, I think this interesting book would be more successful with some more editing and changes to the text layout and typography that would help the young reader navigate the more text. Some pages had very lengthy passages needing more visual breaks and some words were highlighted typographically without contributing to the readers understanding ("So...," "And now...," "And that..."). If more significant passages were highlighted, this would go a long way in making the book more approachable for kids.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Such an interesting folk tale. The snowy setting and lessons about kindness were particular favourites. We really enjoyed the detailed illustrations and the in-depth story.

This is a nice book about an Inuit boy and fishing. The art is lovely but the story seems too text-heavy. For a book like this, I think it could be more effective with less text. It is a good read though and would interest young readers who like fishing tales!

The art in this book is wonderful to look at, but the story would not of interest to most children in my schools. It has a very specific audience, which I do not fit into.

This is a wonderful Inuit folk tale replete with important moral lessons and beautiful illustrations.

The story included a new reader guide as well as a reference to the themes of the book. It would be a great one to share with children ages 8-11.

What a lovely children's story. I enjoyed the interesting Inuit folk tale and I think kids will enjoy it, too. It also has facts and new words at the end of the book plus some teaching points and moral lessons for young readers. I also love the illustrations and I appreciate that the story is longer than most picture books out there.

I love reading folk tales from around the world, and this Inuit tale was wonderful. With the unique Arctic setting, I think more children might be drawn into the morals of the story. The illustrations, too, are wonderful - with beautiful colors and a lovely sense of the story.

An interesting story, but it did not really impress me. I found it rather "indigent" for the younger ages, because of the book lengthiness, as well as because of many toponyms. The concept is obviously based on the Inuit culture (as stated on the cover of the book) and may be a relatively good reading for older children (in my opinion over the age of 10) who want to combine adventure with acquiring knowledge for another culture. Unfortunately,
illustration failed to impress me, too.

I started this book simply because I didn't think I had ever read an Inuit legend before. The story is beautiful and has a great moral at the end but what really surprised me was the illustrations that were absolutely breathtaking. When I looked at them I could imagine all kinds of things about each character and I could almost see the images move in front of me. At the end of the book, readers can also find a glossary to learn about all the strange words with which their culture might not be familiar with which I found very thoughtful. The only thing that I could point out as not that amazing was the font chosen for the text but in its entirety, it was an amazing and really well thought of book.

When I saw that this Inuit folktale book was available for request on NetGalley, I knew immediately that I wanted to read it. The artwork is gorgeous, and I love the topic.

This is a story with lengthier text than some picture books, so it’s probably best for your slightly older children, more like ages 5-8, or for those younger kiddos who have a long attention span for reading.

There’s a lot of fantastic vocabulary, and the story uses many Inuit terms, which is very interesting. This story would be great for discussions with elementary school children, especially in the 1st-4th grade ranges. I also love the map at the beginning and the vocabulary section at the end. It could easily be turned into a short project or unit in the elementary grades.

The story was fine and there would be decent talking points with children. I loved the illustrations. Didn’t love it.