School of Fish - Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF

Watching salmon navigate a lock or swim up a stream in the fall is a very memorable experience, one my kids and I enjoyed when they were little. I was excited to read this book when I saw the cover reveal. This intriguing informational fiction picture book follows a girl and her class through their activities and discoveries associated with a school project to hatch salmon for eventual release into the wild.

School of Fish

Author: Mary Boone

Illustrator: Milena Godoy

Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company (2024)

Ages: 4-8

Informational Fiction

Themes:

Salmon, science, class project, and conservation.

Synopsis:

Students work together to raise salmon in the classroom.

Emmy and her classmates have a special hands-on assignment: raising salmon and releasing them into the wild! At school, they learn about the biology, life cycle, and habitat of salmon, and watch them grow from egg stage to fry stage. When Release Day comes, the students wish their fry goodbye and good luck, hoping that one day they'll find their way back to spawn.

Opening Lines:

Shiny, jellylike balls float down, down, down.

Emmy's eyes follow the blobs until they rest gently

on the gravel on the bottom of the fish tank.

"These are eyed eggs," explained Mrs. Harris. "See the

black spots through the thin layer of the eggs? Those are

eyes. We're going to hatch salmon to release into the wild!"

What I LOVED about this book:

What an enticing opening. The lyricism of "Shiny, jellylike balls float down, down, down," which are then defined as "eyed eggs." is both fun to read and instantly captivating. In the second spread, we get to see the wonderfully diverse class and the colorful inviting classroom created by Milena Godoy, as well as the fish tank full of floating salmon eggs.

Text © Mary Boone, 2024. Image © Milena Godoy, 2024.

Emmy's class is participating in a science-based project of raising salmon for later release them into a nearby streams. I love the way Mary Boone integrates this project throughout the curriculum, beginning with Emmy's daily journaling of the water temperature. And the entire class learns the salmon life cycle (during science), paints fish cut outs (in art), plays salmon tag (in P.E.), makes a fishy word list (during writing), reads books on salmon and Indigenous Peoples (in Library time), and learns how far a salmon can swim (in math). One morning, Emmy shouts, "It's happening!"

Text © Mary Boone, 2024. Image © Milena Godoy, 2024.

The salmon are hatching, and the tank is full of alevin (the second stage in their life cycle). In addition to a beautiful and accurate depiction of the process, I love the expressions of wonder and excitement on the kid's faces. As the class watches the changes and growth of the fish, the kids divvy up the chores - feeding, testing the water quality, and journaling everything as fish progress into fry.

All too soon, it's release day and the class learns about the perfect location they will be hunting for and how the fish will be transported for their release. Mary Boone does a terrific job of interspersing and weaving together scientific information on salmon into the enthusiasm of a class project to create a wonderful informational fiction. Even release day incorporates physical and conservation activities.

Text © Mary Boone, 2024. Image © Milena Godoy, 2024.

The wonderful ending is slightly melancholy, but generally touching and hopeful. An author's note details how many schools in the U.S. and Canada yearly participate in this program and the back matter offers a glossary and an illustrated "Salmon Life Stages." In addition to modelling ways to integrate a topic through multiple academic disciplines for teachers, librarians, and home schoolers, it's a great book for spurring interest in a hatch and release program or generally learning about salmon and their lifecycle.

Resources:

• make a bendy paper salmon, a salmon life cycle "flip fish," or color your own salmon life cycle.

  
  

• if there is a stream nearby, do a salmon habitat scavenger hunt {form in link}.

  
  

• explore options in your area for raising salmon, trout, or sea bass.

If you missed my interview with Mary Boone on Monday, find it (here).

This post is part of a series by authors and KidLit bloggers called Perfect Picture Book Fridays. For more picture book suggestions and resources see Susanna Leonard Hill's Perfect Picture Books.