"The magic fish bedtime stories" Bedtime stories have always held a special place in the hearts of children and parents alike. These imaginative tales transport young minds to fantastical worlds and teach valuable lessons in a way that captivates their attention. One such series of bedtime stories that has become increasingly popular is "The Magic Fish." "The Magic Fish" is a collection of enchanting stories centered around a magical underwater world inhabited by colorful fish, majestic sea creatures, and mischievous merfolk. Written by acclaimed author Emma Jameson, these tales take young readers on exciting adventures filled with captivating characters and moral lessons. Each story in "The Magic Fish" series centers around a different fish and explores universal themes such as bravery, friendship, and overcoming challenges.

Review: The Magic Fish

Title: The Magic Fish
Author: Trung Le Nguyen
Genres: Graphic novel
Pages: 256
Publisher: Random House Graphic
Review Copy: Purchased
Availability: Available now!

Summary: Tiến loves his family and his friends…but Tiến has a secret he’s been keeping from them, and it might change everything. An amazing YA graphic novel that deals with the complexity of family and how stories can bring us together.

Real life isn’t a fairytale. But Tiến still enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It’s hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tiến, he doesn’t even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he’s going through?

Is there a way to tell them he’s gay? A beautifully illustrated story by Trung Le Nguyen that follows a young boy as he tries to navigate life through fairytales, an instant classic that shows us how we are all connected. The Magic Fish tackles tough subjects in a way that accessible with readers of all ages, and teaches us that no matter what—we can all have our own happy endings.

Review: Full disclosure, I pre-ordered The Magic Fish months ago because every time Trung Le Nguyen’s art came up on my Twitter feed, it was breathtaking. Incredible art and a fairy tale focus? I was on board right away… and I’m so glad I was.

The Magic Fish is something special. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — it really feels like we’re living in a golden age of queer graphic novel storytelling. From Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me to Witchy and Mooncakes, there’s just so much incredible stuff that’s released in recent years. The Magic Fish is in good company — it tells the story of young Tiến as he struggles to find the right words to tell his parents that he’s gay, all among the backdrop of grief and loss, and fairy tales, in their many forms.

It’s a beautiful read, and the way the story unfolds — visually and narratively — is an impressive feat. The Magic Fish expresses so much of what I’ve struggled to articulate to myself about what it means to be a child of immigrants, to struggle with language barriers, to find solace in fairy tales and faraway lands, while trying to find a story where I belong.

The Magic Fish is a must-read. Not to get sentimental, but reading The Magic Fish as a queer Asian American was so comforting, and for that reason, I want everyone to read it. Look, it’s good! Read it!

Recommendation: Buy it now! This is such a gorgeous and poignant graphic novel, and you’ll want to read it over (and over, and over) again.

Each story in "The Magic Fish" series centers around a different fish and explores universal themes such as bravery, friendship, and overcoming challenges. Through the experiences of these aquatic characters, children learn valuable life lessons and develop important values. Whether it's a small fish overcoming its fears to save a friend or a group of fish uniting to protect their underwater kingdom, these stories emphasize the power of love, courage, and resilience.

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The Magic Fish

One day there was a fisherman who was going fishing in a river. The fisherman went down to the river. He started getting bites so he yanked on the line. He knew he had the fish on his line. The fisherman reeled in the line as fast as possible. Two ladies came over to say hello. Those two lovely ladies names were Tiffany and Emma.

It was a sunny day like sitting on a burning fire. He was wondering why these ladies were out in such hot weather so he gave the ladies his umbrella. The fisherman reeled in the line and had a fish on the end. He soon realized it wasn’t just a fish. It was a magic fish. He put that magic fish in the bucket to keep it alive. The fish started to talk. It said, “Hello how are you?” The fisherman jumped in surprise and turned to face the fish. The fish said, “Hey are you going to answer me or what?”
The fisherman said, “How are you talking?”
The fish said, “I am a magic fish. I will grant you all of your wishes. So what will your first wish be?”
The fisherman said, “I wish for a brand new boat with those two ladies on the boat.”
The fish then said, “Grant this wish little fish.” Then a boat appeared and those two ladies were on the boat. The fisherman said, “Thank you so much but I need another wish granted.”
The fish said, “What will that be?”
The fisherman said, “I want the sun to be shining as bright as a star.
The fish said once more, “Grant this wish little fish.” Then the sun started shining as bright as a star. The fisherman said, “Thank you again but what do I do with you now?”
The fish said, “Well it is up to you.”
The fisherman said, “But I don’t want anything more.”
The fish then said, “I am sorry but you have got to do something that you will not like… You have to take a life!”

The fisherman said, “Whose life do I have to take?”
The fish said, “That is up to you.“ The fisherman was thinking whose life he would take. The fish said, “You have 5 minutes to decide.” (5 minutes later). The fisherman said, “I am sorry fish but I have chosen to take your life.”
The fish then said, “That is ok but I will miss you very much brave fisherman.” The fisherman said, “Wait is there any way I could wish for me to not have to take a life.”
The fish said, “Well I guess you could. There is nothing saying you can’t.”

So, one more time the fish said, “Grant this wish little fish.” So the fish and the fisherman lived happily.

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The Magic Fish

Or—in a less colloquial, wordier way—The Magic Fish is everything I want at the moment in a graphic novel, especially in one meant for both kids and adults to read. This first narrative work from the accomplished Minnesota-based illustrator Trung Le Nguyen folds European and Vietnamese fairy tales (among them “Cinderella” and “The Little Mermaid”) into a braid that also includes realist stories about a second generation immigrant childhood; about parents who do their best and still sometimes fall down; about middle-school friendships that (amazingly) work out; about modern and wartime Vietnam; and—not to be forgotten—about kisses, love stories and happy endings, some of which are gay as all get out. And that’s without even mentioning the line art or color. Nguyen’s debut flew—or swam in the air—from my hands to the very small shelf of all-ages graphic novels I buy in multiples and give to everybody, alongside Laura Lee Gulledge’s Page by Paige and Tillie Walden’s On a Sunbeam. Like them, it’s a thing of surpassing, sweet, credible beauty, at once realistic in its treatment of human emotions and out-of-this-world in terms of what readers can see. Its happy endings (and there are several) could warm up a frozen room.

The Magic Fish begins as a pair of alternating stories. One, told in black and white line art with red backgrounds, follows thirteen-year-old Tiên Phong, who attends middle school with his best friend Claire and their jock friend Julian in 1998. At home, Tiên reads fairy tales to his hardworking, kind, attentive mom, who wants to improve her English; she came to the U.S. as an adult, and now works at a costume rental (modeled on Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater). Tiên has—Claire realizes—a big crush on Julian: will Julian reject him as a friend, return his love? Can Tiên ever come out to his immigrant mom, and will he get in trouble as a gay kid at their Catholic school?

While panels in red follow Tiên’s story, panels in black, white, and indigo follow the fairy tales that Tiên reads. All concern mermaids or magic fish, and all concern girls magically tied to the sea who make their way, and fall in love, on land. One is “Cinderella,” another “The Little Mermaid,” and another still has debts to “The Juniper Tree.” The first and longest concerns a girl in a Shakespearean boy-disguise and the boy who wins her love. All involve children and grandmothers, aunts, magic helpers, and older antagonists; all speak to the ocean, and to the generation, that separates immigrants both from their culture of birth and from their more Americanized children. They also evoke the spells, the determination, and the compassion that come with the right kinds of love.

If The Magic Fish were nothing but what its first third promises—red realist childhood stories and blue fairy-fish stories—the book would end up good enough to recommend, not only for its sensitive storytelling pace, its lovely, expectant faces and tender poses, but for the way that Nguyen deploys ink and monochrome color. One particularly expressive panel where Claire comforts Tiên uses at least five intensities of red, from Claire’s dark skin to the pale-pink of Tiên’s much-mended and plot-relevant jacket. Nguyen’s line art, meanwhile, is its own pleasure: his many sinuous curves and filigree traceries bring exceptional beauty to long hair, fish fins and tails, waves, and showers of magic stars from a twilit sky, but he is also more than capable of following them with cartoony middle school kids, whether they’re credibly happy or quietly angsty or, in one case, sweaty.

And yet—for all the delights its first segments delivers—The Magic Fish is far more than that. There’s a third storyline colored in tangerine: yellow-orange panels, beginning less than halfway through the book, denote flashbacks, mostly to Vietnam and the days when Tiên’s mother and her new husband became refugees. Now that the Phong family have become US citizens, Tiên’s mother can go back to visit her family, and once there, she learns other, Vietnamese fairy tales, linked by motif to the Western versions her son has told her before. These tales, in turn, illuminate Tiên’s coming out story at home and his wish for a romantic happy ending. That wish finds support in the way that his mom, her relatives in Vietnam, and, by extension, Nguyen himself self-consciously tweak, transform, and reinvent matters of heritage so that they can inform, rather than contradict, modern, queer lives.

Nguyen keeps these optimistic, queer-positive, kid-friendly claims aloft not just through his plots, but also through deft nets of elegant symbols. Mending clothes—as Tiên’s mom does all the time—is like adapting folktales. Patches are like peaches. Adapting folktales is like translation. Translating is like baking, but also like what Claire does at school, serving as a trustworthy go-between. And all these enterprises are like the larger enterprise of fixing a life, picking yourself up after a rent or a tear or a disaster—say, a war—and learning to go on. Fantastic visions meet their counterparts in the careful realist stories that link Nguyen’s generations, that link the troubles of immigrant parents to the emotional questions tweens (and not only gay tweens) try to handle. “I feel,” Tiên tells Claire, “like everybody’s problems are so much bigger than mine.” He’s not wrong. But his problems are real.

artwork from The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

As the braided tales inform one another, fairy marine princess to immigrant mom to stressed-out, crushed-out kid, the colors do too: in one of Nyugen’s signature effects, single objects and then panels on pages with one color incorporate another—first the red peaches in the blue tale of Alera, then panels of tangerine or indigo inside pages of red. Asking “How can I return to a place I’ve never been” about the fierce ocean, looking brave and vulnerable in her blanket and cloth cap, young Alera echoes Tiên’s questions about his own relationship to Vietnam. His mom’s resolution, like Alera’s Happily Ever After, proves worth the wait.

Astonishingly beautiful all on its own, Nguyen’s story will still make sense to kids who have read few or no graphic novels before. It’s likely to be the first long story with an Asian, and especially Southeast Asian, protagonist that some of those kids have perused. Comparisons to the deservedly über-popular Raina Telgemeier, to Tillie Walden, or to Jen Wang’s also-elegant The Prince and the Dressmaker might prove hard to avoid.

Comparisons to the best-known comic about insecure Asian kids—MacArthur Fellowship winner Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese—show a welcome variety of difference. Graphically, panel by panel, the two are nothing alike (and, if it needs saying, China is not Southeast Asia). Structurally, they resemble each other. Nguyen’s volume, like Yang’s, brings together multiple narratives, one about a kid and one built from folktales. Yang tells an emphatic story about accepting the heritage, and the body, you’re given. The Monkey King comes all the way from legendary China so that Yang’s protagonist can stop his fits of self-hate, his futile attempts to be someone else (someone white), someone other than what he was at birth. It’s a perfectly told and deservedly famous story, but it can hit trans kids and artsy kids and kids who require assistive technology in very much the wrong way.

Nguyen hits us the right way. “It feels as though I’m not whole,” his Little Mermaid figure tells her elaborately drawn, marine-magical grandmother, who cautions the girl: “This is transgressive. Your yearning desire to be other than what you are may well be your undoing.” But, as we know and Tiên learns, that desire might instead build your best self. Your wish to dress different, to look different, to change your friends or your habits or your body or your pronouns, might be a culpable wish to run from yourself (as in Yang) but it also might be your way to become who you need to be, who nobody else knew you were. Self-acceptance can also be self-transformation, and that’s a lesson everybody—not only middle school second-gen kids—could use.

But I’m getting away from my initial claim. So let me call your attention to the striking, Art Nouveau-ish, transoceanic beauty on every page of The Magic Fish, which also tells sweet and credible stories about a girl in disguise and her peach tarts, a spectacular mentor who can’t leave the ocean, a mom and her kid and their family in Vietnam, a kid and his dad and his crush and their best friend. Ultimately, though, you have to read it yourself, because The Magic Fish is everything.

The enchanting illustrations in "The Magic Fish" series by renowned artist Sophie Anderson bring the underwater world to life. Each page is filled with vibrant colors, intricate details, and whimsical designs that captivate the imagination. The illustrations perfectly complement the captivating storytelling, creating a truly immersive experience for young readers. Parents and caregivers can use "The Magic Fish" bedtime stories as a tool to instill important values and spark imaginative conversations with their children. By discussing the lessons learned and characters encountered in each story, parents can encourage open dialogue and critical thinking while fostering a love for reading. In addition to their educational value, "The Magic Fish" bedtime stories also provide a calming and soothing experience for children before they drift off to sleep. The gentle rhythm and comforting nature of these tales create a perfect atmosphere for winding down and transitioning into a peaceful slumber. "The Magic Fish" series has quickly become a favorite among children and parents alike, with its imaginative narratives, stunning illustrations, and valuable life lessons. Through these enchanting bedtime stories, young readers are not only entertained but also encouraged to develop important character traits and a love for reading. So cuddle up with your child and dive into the magical world of "The Magic Fish" tonight..

Reviews for "The Brave Little Fish: A Heartwarming Bedtime Story"

- Sarah - 1 star

I was very disappointed with "The magic fish bedtime stories." The stories were not engaging at all and the writing felt very amateur. The plots were predictable and lacked any creativity. I felt like I wasted my money on this book and would not recommend it to anyone looking for quality bedtime stories.

- John - 2 stars

I found "The magic fish bedtime stories" to be quite underwhelming. The illustrations were bland and didn't capture my child's attention. The stories themselves were also lackluster and not very entertaining. My child quickly lost interest in the book and didn't want me to read it to them again. I was expecting much more from this book and was disappointed with the overall quality.

- Emily - 1 star

I really didn't enjoy "The magic fish bedtime stories." The stories were too short and didn't have much substance. The characters felt flat and I couldn't connect with them at all. I also found the language used to be too simplistic and not engaging for children. Overall, I would not recommend this book as there are much better options out there for bedtime stories.

- Ben - 2 stars

"The magic fish bedtime stories" was a letdown for me. The stories were unoriginal and felt like they were just rehashed versions of other popular children's stories. The writing style was also bland and lacked any sort of charm or imagination. My child was not captivated by the stories and quickly lost interest. I would not recommend this book to anyone looking for unique and engaging bedtime stories.

The Wish-Granting Fish: An Enchanting Bedtime Story