Fish Friends Forever
by Kerry Ferguson; illus. by Aliaa Betawi
Preschool, Primary    Rocky Pond/Penguin    32 pp.
8/25    9780593700204    $18.99
e-book ed.  9780593700211    $10.99

The young girl who narrates this funny, affecting, and sensitive picture book adores her new goldfish, Frank. She observes his behavior closely (and decides his favorite color is pink), plays games with him, writes him a lullaby, dresses up like him for Halloween, and makes him a Valentine’s Day card. “Fish friends forever!” Then, after almost a year (the text takes us through the calendar with dates on every spread), Frank sickens and dies. The girl is inconsolable—and angry. She discovers things that make her feel better: planning a funeral for Frank, wearing a locket containing his photo, journaling. A few months later, Mama brings home another fish. “She said it might be time for a new friend.” Our narrator is not ready for that, but when she realizes that this fish’s tail is pink, it opens the door to a new friendship, with its own games and rituals. “I love her…and I bet Frank would too.” The child-appealing, aptly watery art—made with “a combination of traditional materials and digital finessing”—imbues even the fish with personality and captures the girl’s varying emotions through highly readable facial expressions and body language. The narrator’s journey through grief is authentic and age-appropriate; her eventual ability to accept and love new fish Fern but bring Frank with her in that acceptance is a healthy and useful model.

From the September/October 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.