THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Copyright © 2010 by Sue Hendra
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Visit us on the Web! www.randomhouse.com/kids
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at www.randomhouse.com/teachers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hendra, Sue.
Barry, the fish with fingers / by Sue Hendra. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: When Barry the fish shows off his new fingers, all the fish are eager to get their own.
eISBN: 978-0-375-98926-1
[1. Fishes—Fiction. 2. Fingers—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.H3853Bar 2010
[E]—dc22
2009009888
The illustrations in this book were created using gouache.
Book concept by Paul Linnet and Sue Hendra.
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
v3.0
Table of Contents
Sea Slug liked to lie on the ocean floor and watch the fish swim by.
He did this every day.
He saw fat ones, thin ones, some as big as cars, some as small as buttons.
Toothy ones, big-nosed ones, googly-eyed ones, spotty ones, stripy ones…
You name it, he’d seen it.
In fact, he thought he had seen it all…
…until he caught sight of Barry, that is.
“How do you do?” asked Barry, proudly waving his fish fingers.
“WOW! A fish with fingers!” exclaimed Sea Slug.
“These new fingers are the answer to every fish’s problem,” said Barry.
“What’s your problem?” Barry asked a moody-looking fish.
There was a long silence.
“I’m bored,” said the fish.
“We’re all bored,” said the others.
“Well, prepare to be un-bored….”
“With fingers I can…
Knit a scarf!
Count to ten!
Type a letter!
Make a paper chain!
Finger-paint!
Play the piano!
Have a big morning stretch!”
“Fingers really are a must for tickling.”
The fish could see why Barry loved his fingers. They could do so many things!
Suddenly the sea went dark and the water shook.
It was at that moment that one of Barry’s fingers did something truly amazing….
It pointed!
Thanks to Barry’s fast-acting finger, not a single fish got squished by the massive heavy box that fell into the sea.
Everyone cheered for Barry.
“Now I really have seen it all,” said Sea Slug.
Sue Hendra graduated from the University of Brighton, in England, with a degree in illustration. She has illustrated over seventy books for children, including Monsters Don’t Eat Broccoli by Barbara Jean Hicks. When she’s not busy making books, Sue helps run an art club for children at two of her local museums.
Sue Hendra lives in Brighton, where she loves to swim, explore the surrounding countryside, and eat fish-finger sandwiches, much to Barry’s chagrin.
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 2 Slug enjoys lying on the ocean floor observing the different fish as they swim by. He takes note of their diverse sizes, shapes, and colors and figures he has seen everything until Barry arrives. Barry has fingers at the ends of his fins. He claims that his new appendages are the answer to every fish’s problem. The problem, it turns out, is boredom. Barry demonstrates all of the wonderful things he can do with his fingers, such as count, knit, type, paint, and play the piano. He even saves the others’ lives when he points out a heavy object that is plummeting to the sea floor, and they can scatter before it lands on them. The box, it turns out, is filled with Pirate Jack’s Tasty Fish Sticks, which enable the other fish to obtain fingers like Barry’s. The book’s pages are filled with bright, cartoonish, gouache illustrations. Children who enjoyed Marcus Pfister’s Rainbow Fish books (NorthSouth) will enjoy Barry. Donna Atmur, Los Angeles Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
Review, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, August 15, 2010:
“Hendra’s bright and cheerful undersea characters make the ocean seem like a great place to be.”
From the Hardcover edition.