Rocking the Tide: Ready-to-Read Level 1

by Jane Yolen, Mike Moran (Illustrations)

From acclaimed, prolific author Jane Yolen comes a colorful Level 1 Ready-to-Read story all about a school music concert!

The fish are performing a music concert at school. But then they start to worry:

“What if a current
grabs my strings?
What if our soloist
never sings?”

School performances can be full of jitters but can also be very rewarding. Beginning readers can follow along as the fish overcome their stage fright and take to the stage!

32 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2020

About the author

Jane Yolen is a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children’s book author who has written more than three hundred books. Her accolades include the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerlan Award, two Christopher Awards, and six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Born and raised in New York City, the mother of three and the grandmother of six, Yolen lives in Massachusetts and St. Andrews, Scotland.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Silver and his band The Fry (!) are going to preform at school - but they are all nervous. Great story about working as a team to overcome problems.

[Rose Rosetree · Rating 5 out of 5]

How clever and imaginative is this easy reader about fish who play in a band?

According to this Goodreader, it's not clever at all. Sorry.

This book reminds me of "Racing the Waves: Ready-to-Read Level 1" -- which I've just reviewed here. Once again, I like the cute illustrations. I like the author's audacity in imagining that fish underwater are exactly the same as human children on land.

Only how much sense does this fantasy make? For instance, it's fine for all the musical instruments to be soggy. They still look like normal musical instruments??? Really?

AWFUL WRITING TOO, IMO

If you love rhymes -- which many new readers do, along with adults -- you may appreciate the rhymes here. But I find the writing to be absolutely atrocious, by my standards. For instance:

"The seawed curtains
start to part.
I feel the tempo
of my heart."

And this is supposed to be coming from a FISH?

RATING THIS BOOK, HOWEVER

My policy is to rate books on the basis of what reactions would be for the intended readers.

Seems to me, these would be very young readers who are working hard to sound out their words, and they're clueless about what makes a story believable. On their behalf, FIVE STARS.

Today, these kids are learning to read. Maybe tomorrow they'll learn to think a bit more about what they are reading.

[Suzanne Lorraine Kunz Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love how this School of Fish series goes through my of the situations and emotions that children may face when going to school and I love the count to ten - and think of something calming technique that Jane Yolen repeats through this series.

[Miss Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fish band gets pretty nervous before a concert an must learn to calm down. Elementary and up

[Tara Engel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A couple of tough words for a first grader but otherwise right on level for early readers.