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Rating: 
Summary: Give Yourself Away to Make Friends
Review: Although the illustrations in this book are certainly quite lovely, I find the message to be very disturbing. Rainbow Fish is lonely, and he is advised to give away parts of his own body (his beautiful scales) to other fish in order to gain friends. He does and it works. YIKES! Suggesting to impressionable children the should change who they are to please others and gain friends is unconscionable. This is not what I want my daguther to learn, and I stopped reading this book to her.
Rating: 
Summary: wrong message interpreted
Review: Forget all the negatives you've read about this book -- it is priceless. This is a wonderful book about sharing. Rainbow fish has lots of pretty scales, but when a little blue fish asks for one, he says, "never!" As a result, all the other fish start not liking him. It's not a matter of being "socialist" or any other garbage. If a kid has a whole box of crayons and won't share any, then he won't be liked much! If you have a whole box of cookies and won't share any, then you won't be liked much, either. Period. Once rainbow fish visits the wise octopus, who advises him to share his scales, the rainbow fish "ligthens up". He shares his scales, one by one, and the other fish realize he isn't greedy afterall. Before you run to rip this book from your infant/toddler's hands, just take a minute to talk about sharing, what it is and isn't. This is a wonderful book and well worth "sharing" with your children.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is about SHARING -- NOTHING ELSE!
Review: Forget all the negatives you've read about this book -- it is priceless. This is a wonderful book about sharing. Rainbow fish has lots of pretty scales, but when a little blue fish asks for one, he says, "never!" As a result, all the other fish start not liking him. It's not a matter of being "socialist" or any other garbage. If a kid has a whole box of crayons and won't share any, then he won't be liked much! If you have a whole box of cookies and won't share any, then you won't be liked much, either. Period. Once rainbow fish visits the wise octopus, who advises him to share his scales, the rainbow fish "ligthens up". He shares his scales, one by one, and the other fish realize he isn't greedy afterall. Before you run to rip this book from your infant/toddler's hands, just take a minute to talk about sharing, what it is and isn't. This is a wonderful book and well worth "sharing" with your children.
Rating: 
Summary: Give me a break...
Review: Many thanks to all the reviewers who found this book's message disturbing. My daughter received this book as a gift and, I am ashamed to admit, I didn't read it before handing it to her in the bath. Fortunately, she can't read yet (one year old tomorrow). Recently, I was looking for bath books for my friend's Baby Shower, and I saw your reviews of The Rainbow Fish. I was horrified and ran to read the book. I promptly threw it away (no, I didn't give it to Goodwill, I don't want poor people reading bad ideas either). I thank you all so much for your candid, insightful reviews. They were terrific. Freedom of speech---just one more reason to love this country.
Rating: 
Summary: If you don't share your body, friends will swim away?
Review: My 1 1/2 year old LOVES "fishies" so this book seemed ideal for her. Well, As I started reading it to her I was very disturbed by the message. The rainbow fish gives away his scales to make friends...How horrible!!! Everytime I read the book, I change the word "give" to "borrow" which could have easily been done by the author. This book is NOT about sharing. Sharing, to me, means letting someone borrow something for a given amount of time, AND GETTING IT BACK! Children shouldn't be taught that they have to give their things away to make friends, especially, pieces of their body! How bizarre?! My daughter loves this book and I cringe everytime she brings it to me. Like I said, the pictures are absolutely beautiful but the message is terrrible, I really can't believe this book is on bookshelves!
Rating:
Summary: beautiful pictures, terrible story...
Review: My 1 1/2 year old LOVES "fishies" so this book seemed ideal for her. Well, As I started reading it to her I was very disturbed by the message. The rainbow fish gives away his scales to make friends...How horrible!!! Everytime I read the book, I change the word "give" to "borrow" which could have easily been done by the author. This book is NOT about sharing. Sharing, to me, means letting someone borrow something for a given amount of time, AND GETTING IT BACK! Children shouldn't be taught that they have to give their things away to make friends, especially, pieces of their body! How bizarre?! My daughter loves this book and I cringe everytime she brings it to me. Like I said, the pictures are absolutely beautiful but the message is terrrible, I really can't believe this book is on bookshelves!
Rating:
Summary: How to buy friends
Review: That's what my husband calls this book. It's not so much a message of "sharing" as of giving in to peer pressure. The fish is pressured into giving up what makes him special or the other fish won't be his friends.
Rating:
Summary: If you don't share your body, friends will swim away?
Review: This book is great for the water and has beautiful art, but it has a disturbing message. The deeper meaning that I want to keep away from my child's subconscious is that he must give away body parts to make friends. Even if one takes the shiny scales as a metaphor for money or toys, any friend that stays for what he gets is an opportunist in my opinion. I will teach my child to share and to make sacrifices for his friends when they are in need but not with this book. When my child learns to read, I will remove this book from the bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: wrong message interpreted
Review: unfortunately, the book is a condensed version of the original story so it does indeed send out a "bad" message. The movie goes into much greater detail, showing that rainbow fish is very conceited and quite selfish and he doesn't listen, share or want to play with the other fish unless it is on his terms, so to speak. my opinion is that this book IS about sharing and learning to take the time to care about someone else's feelings.
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