Wish for a Fish: All About Sea Creatures

The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library

by Bonnie Worth, Aristides Ruiz (Illustrator)

The Cat in the Hat, Sally, and Dick take an undersea voyage aboard the <'S.S. Undersea Glubber'! Traveling down from the Sunny Zone to the Dark Zone to the Trench at the bottom, Captain Cat and his crew get up close and personal with the different life forms found at each level of the ocean. Along the way, they meet sharks, jellyfish, dolphins, manatees, whales, and sea cucumbers, to name just a few!

Dr Seuss' famous cat plunges young readers from the sunny surface waters to the deepest oceans in search of an amazing array of marine creatures.

'I'm the Cat in the hat.
And I hear that you wish
To go down to the sea
And to visit the fish.'

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Science, Nonfiction, Animals, Poetry, Adventure

48 pages, Hardcover

First published April 6, 1999

About the author

BONNIE WORTH is the author of countless books for young readers, among them the Cat in the Hat Learning Library books If I Ran the Rain Forest, HarK! A Shark!, Oh Say Can You Seed? (winner of the 2003 Ohio Farm Bureau Award), Wish for a Fish, Oh Say Can You Say Di-No-Saur?, Would You Rather Be a Pollywog?, Ice Is Nice!, and Safari, So Good!

Reviews

[Hirdesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly acknowledged Rhyme.

[Hirdesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Seuss was great pioneer of children, I guess ! ! !

[Alessandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

To label this book "Dr. Seuss" is too much.
He never yet wrote it, nor genius it touched.
It's flat, it's pedantic, it leaves children bored,
The very things Teddy S. Geisel abhorred.
Go read some real Dr. Seuss if you wish.
Let these hand-puppet zombies drone on about fish.

[Gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a learning tool for those youngsters who want to know about the sea and the creatures that inhabit it. And all done in traditional Dr Seuss style to make it that much more interesting.

Dick and Jane are taken into the depths of the ocean by the Cat in the Hat in the SS Undersea Glubber and they descend from the Sunny Zone, through the Twilight Zone, the Dark Zone, the Abyss to the very bottom of the ocean, the Trench. And in doing so they observe the sea life that exists at each level.

They begin at the Sunny Zone, which extends from sea level to 200 metres, and there live most of the sea life creatures where big fish eat smaller fish until it is the tiniest krill that suffers. Cod, Mackerel, Herring and many other species live there and the Cat gives a lesson in how they all breath and how such as sharks and whales do their hunting there.

Then it is down to the Twilight Zone, 200 to 1000 metres where, for instance, a sperm whale does battle with a giant squid. The Abyss stretches from 1000 to 6000 metres, deep and cold, with 'a carpet of thick yucky muck. Dick and Jane don their se helmets and take torches to view the cucumber, sea spider and tripod that are down there.

Finally it is the Trench, 6000 metres and deeper, where they visit the vents, which are cracks in the earth's crust, where hot water spouts and warms up the giant clams and the tube worms that are down there.

And after the Trench the Cat tells Dick and Jane that they are going back to catch some ... SUN in which the Cat waves goodbye on a sailboard!

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did anyone else know the Cat in the Hat does nonfiction books about animals? My son was so excited to find this one in the library. Same old rhyming and adventuring but with all facts and real words! Illustrations are Dr. Seuss (to my eyes anyway). It was a very interesting read and I think we both enjoyed it. Would recommend to ages 4 and up, overall 4/5 stars ⭐️

[BLT Fraser]

Received for Christmas 2023

[Norma Vantrease · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wish For A Fish: All About Sea Creatures is part of the The Cat in the Hat Learning Library.

As the story begins, readers are invited to join a group of children climbing aboard the S.S. Undersea Glubber, a fantasy vehicle capable of traveling to the bottom of the ocean.

The Cat in the Hat is the instructor, teaching young readers about the different marine life encountered on the way toward the Trench at the bottom of the sea. At first the animals look familiar; but by the time the vessel travels below 3,300 feet, the critters start looking pretty strange. The illustrations are drawn in Suess-like fashion.

Although Wish for a Fish is not intended to be textbook accurate, most of the animals are recognizable and a lot of the information is factual. Wish For A Fish is a fun read for ocean enthusiasts: child and adult alike.

There is a Glossary and For Further Reading list at the end of the book.

[Jeffrey Hite · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do my very best not to groan out loud when my kids bring me this or one of the other in the series. to read. It is usually the younger ones who bring them to me so I usually will read them but they are really awful. Thank goodness the older kids realize how bad these books really are.

We have a number of the books in this series and the best thing I can say about them is that the pictures are interesting.

The rhymes are really a stretch. Most of the information is sketchy at best, though it might work as a very beginners introduction, but even then it is a stretch. These are not the clever books you remember from your childhood and will more than likely turn you off of the other Dr Seuss books if you read thee first.

[Mitel Patel]

This book is fantastic for a Water topic or a topic based on Sea Creatures. It gives an insight to what kinds of things you can find in the ocean. It goes down to different sea levels and looks at the different sea creatures that live in the sea and how they live.

A fantastic non-fiction book for early KS2. It would be a great book for a children to write a book review on it as they can learn a lot from the facts in the book and comment on whether they liked the book or hot and why.

[anemoska · Rating 3 out of 5]

first off, since my August reading will be a REAL TOUGH ONE and i CAN NO LONGER READ everyday and to update, given by the fact that my ONLINE CLASSES HAVE JUST STARTED (to which making me feel miserable rn). with that, nobody can stop me from this kind of book because i'm in a STRONG DENIAL. i am truly and honestly looking for a GETAWAY to this PANDEMIC and my to LESSONS which made me feel like LIVING IN AN ENORMOUS MISERY.

[Triston Dutschke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another great book that is similar to, On Beyond Bugs. It goes over multiple sea creatures. Also it teaches about the various levels of the ocean. It gives interesting facts with visuals to back them up. Students can learn more about our oceans and the creatures living in them. This would be a great book to introduce to students learning about the world's oceans.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

More learning from the Cat in the Hat's learning library this time with Bonnie Worth and it is all about creatures from the sea, and again it is interesting, informative and invigorating. How very Dr Seuss of them!

[Jenna Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book full of loads of info done in an interesting way.

[Sha Mohamed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku yang menarik.. Bergambar, bahasa Inggeris yang mudah.. Penerangan mengenai penghuni laut mengikut kedalaman.. Memang seronok dibaca bersama anak-anak..

[Sir Readalot · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are so many different types of fish.

[Mahmudul Hasan]

nice

[Mari]

a little boring imo but maybe some kid would like it better. It's supposed to be informational but the images didn't show well enough imo and I think a non rhyming text would have been more suitable.

[Mum Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this to my 3-1/2 year-old grandson. He was fascinated.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Dr Seuss, but this, sadly, did not come close. It droned in and on, and the rhymes were not great. It missed the catchiness of a real Dr Seuss book.

[Alessandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the physical book to my son & daughter & they were too too interested because it is a longer book & they’re younger but they did take interest in it. It’s very educational.

[Jennifer Fann-Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite

[Brittany Hastings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grade level: 2nd
Lexile: 540
Main Character: Cat in the Hat, Sally, Dick
Setting: Ocean
POV: 3rd
Genre: Informational

-Summary: This book is an informational text about the different characteristics of fish. The Cat in the Hat goes on a journey undersea to discover many different types of fish that live in the ocean. Accompanied by Sally and Dick, they go aboard the SS Glubber to explore the ocean. Along the way, the Cat in the Hat learns about many fish under the sea and teaches the others about what they see.

I would incorporate this into my curriculum when the students are learning about the animal kingdoms. This book is a great introduction to the different types of fish that exist.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really isn't for beginning readers as it contains a lot of difficult words. But it is written in a style like Cat in the Hat.

Here we learn about sea creatures. You might have figured that out from the title. Maybe not. Anyways, it's pretty basic information. It talks about the different layers of the ocean and about a few of the animals that live in each layer. It discusses food chains as well. All fairly short, but concise.

We used this in our ocean studies and it really helped the 4-yr-old feel like he was a part of it. He learned something and had fun doing it. And the older boys liked it too.

A fun addition to any study of the ocean or just because.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

My classmate in my reading methods course read this book to us. For an activity she briefly discussed the book and all the different sea creatures and where they live in the ocean. A mural would be presented of the layers in the ocean with examples of which sea creatures live in each of the layers. Students then will participate in drawing sea creatures either from the book or sea creatures they like on construction paper and cut them out. Each student will come up and tape their sea creature on an ocean layer on the mural where they think it lives.

[Oana Cerchezan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a really great book to use in the fourth garde. Dr. Seuss never fails at making even what might seem like the most boring of subjects interesting by using rhymes. An activity the teacher can do is assign each table a certain 'zone' that it has in the book and let them use their creativity to tell about that certain zone. The teacher should have different requirements for each grade level.

[Valarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not actually written by Dr. Seuss, so the writing doesn't have the same beat and whimsy that his original works did. For kids who enjoy rhyme, though, it is a great introduction to the ocean zones. Even parents can learn something! It's a bit long for preschool age, but will be a great choice when they want to delay bedtime ; )

[Cornelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

For first kindergarten children, this is an excellent book to read to children so they can learn about different creatures that live in the ocean. I would use this book in the classroom to help children to listen to rhyming words while learning about sea creatures, such as jellyfish and sharks.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book teaches kids about dolphins mantes and where all these creatures live it is a wonderful book that teaches kids about marine life it teaches them about the sunny zone to the dark zone I thought this was A wonderful book that I would like to read again

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not Dr. Seuss, and the meter is frequently abused, but there are some fun facts and drawings in this work of nonfiction for preschoolers.

[Chandler Aing · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love fish!