The Fishing Trip by Beatrice Rodriguez

The Fishing Trip by Beatrice Rodriguez
Buy The Fishing Trip by Beatrice Rodriguez at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Ruth Ng
Summary: A sweet, funny book with no words. Lovely to share with children, or to enjoy yourself!
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 32	Date: July 2012
Publisher: Gecko Press
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1877579240
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Fox, chicken and their not-yet-hatched egg have run out of food. Chicken decides to go out to try and get them something to eat, leaving fox to take care of the egg. Poor chicken faces big, scary birds and a giant sea monster...will she ever manage to find any food? And what will she find if she does manage to get home again?

As unlikely as it seems that a fox and a chicken would be living together and raising a family, it's surprisingly easy to accept the idea in this story. Fox looks rather gentle, chicken isn't afraid of fox at all and sits, delightfully, in a rocking chair with their egg. And for some reason they also seem to be living with a small crab! Crab goes along with chicken on the food hunt, and although they quite quickly catch a large fish the fish is stolen by a big bird, with chicken still hanging onto the fishing rod! They manage to escape, just, but then a sea monster spies their fish and swallows it whole, whilst it's still attached to the fishing rod, and drags poor chicken (with crab following behind) down into the ocean. After a tremendous struggle the monster is defeated, and chicken and crab race back home to tell fox. On opening the door, however, chicken sees a cracked egg on the table next to a frying pan...fearing the worst chicken picks up the pan and heads towards fox to bash him on the head! But fortunately it turns out that fox is rocking their newly hatched baby (a white fox with wings!) Their family is complete, and they cook up the sea monster, and the fish from his belly, to share together.

The magical thing about this story is that there are no words. All of that action is told entirely through pictures, and they are charming works of art. The colours throughout are lovely, even just the changes in the sky as the day passes. There's lots of movement in each picture, and it's obvious what is happening throughout. The fact that there aren't any words is very appealing, and it allows you to tell the story each time as you want to. Older children will be able to look through it by themselves and younger children can sit and enjoy you explaining the story to them. It would work well for those just starting school too as early readers often begin with books without words in order to learn about the progression of a story and to encourage them to use the pictures to tell what's happening.

An unusual book which made me laugh out loud at the end. Definitely worth a look!

Another pictures-only book that you might enjoy is More! by Peter Schossow

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You can read more book reviews or buy The Fishing Trip by Beatrice Rodriguez at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Fishing Trip by Beatrice Rodriguez at Amazon.com.

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