Fish Jam

by Kylie Howarth

A clever, light-hearted story about a scat-singing, bebopping fish!

Meet one little scat-singing, bebopping fish who can’t seem to make friends—everyone thinks he’s too noisy! All he wants to do is sing, but the other animals in the ocean keep telling him to be quiet. One day, a whale comes along and eats him, and to his surprise he finds a full jazz band in its belly! He’ll never have to scat alone again.

Genres: Picture Books, Music, Storytime, Childrens, Animals, Humor, Jazz

40 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2015

About the author

Kylie is an award-winning, internationally published children's book author and illustrator from Western Australia. She was raised in the country alongside her brother, dog, sheep, several orphaned kangaroos and one very cheeky echidna. Her obsession with animals also extends underwater as she has braved lionfish in Egypt, piranha and pink dolphins in the Amazon, marine iguanas and hammerhead sharks in the Galapagos Islands and swum with whale sharks, manta rays and humpback whales at Ningaloo, Western Australia. The textures in Kylie's picture book illustrations are created with her two adventurous young boys during their backyard art sessions.

Reviews

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminded me of my boyfriend, who was "too loud", "unacceptable", and "didn't fit in". At the end, you found your people. ♡

[Jannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

So...so trumpety-looking fish swims around scatting zip-zop-zoopity-bop and other fish hate it and tell the fish to go away.
Scatty-trumpety-fish gets swallowed by a whale, where he finds other musical fish friends and they play jazz while they just live in the whale's stomach ever after, the end.
Uh.
The illustrations didn't really grab me, and the fish now being forever stuck in a whale's stomach with other fish sounded claustrophobic, inescapable and doomed. Have you seen what happens to fish when they're stuck in a tank without fish food?
They make fish food out of each other.
Sometimes even when they do get regular feedings.
And the fact that the only place they can make their music is while trapped/hiding away from everyone else while being potentially digested over time or eating each other?
So I just wasn't really fond of any part of this.
Poor scatfish.
You should have been more appreciated by the other fish. My brothers and I used to hate each other when we were practicing our instruments, but eventually we got better and people started to like listening to our bands and such. Too bad that the only ones who will hear you now are other music fish. Who will then eat you eventually because none of you will probably be very successful living trapped in a whale stomach.
Sad day.

[Cynthia June Long · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jazz the fish talks like this: "Scooba-dooba-diddly-dooo."
Other fish & sea animals think he's too noisy.
Then he's eaten by a whale. Inside the whale are other musical fish.
Crab's claws go "clickety-click" etc.
And they jam inside the whale and make music.
"And he never played solo again."
Sound effects would make a good storytime

[Stephanie Croaning · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun way to introduce young children to the musical style of scat. If done as a read-aloud to a small group, each child can be given a different scat voice and then they can make music just like the fish did at the end of the tale.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fitting in and being yourself with a little jazz thrown in for fun. The illustrations were nice, but the story just didn't grab me. Everyone was abominably rude to the little fish until he finally found a band to play with inside a whale. That wasn't terribly inspiring. Just ok.

[Nikki Glassley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lil fishy sings too much and gets told to be quiet, until one day he's eaten by a whale and meets a bunch of other musical sea creatures. Alright.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son loved this book because of the music!

[Villain E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jazz is a fish who likes music. All the other sea creatures want him to be quiet. He gets eaten and finds his place in the belly of a whale.

What? Seriously, what's the message here?

[Melissa the Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can't beat a book about jazz music, scat singing, and the ocean! This is a fun book that I've used in partnership with music groups in the past.

[Nikki Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kind of felt like the story was missing from this one, I get it was a fish trying to find friends to make music with, but it was mainly just making noises and you guessed the story.

[Arielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

cute. I do love me some jazz scat. <3

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

preschoolers LOVE this book - fun sounds, great opportunities to ask them what's going on a page and after a couple readings they can anticipate and add their own sound effects.

[Cherokee - Books With A Chance · Rating 4 out of 5]

have mixed feelings about this book, but my toddler loves it, we've probably read it over 50 times in a week.

We follow a little trumpet/cello looking gold fish on his journey to find acceptance among his peers.
He is a noisy little fish, doing this thing called Scat, you know making noise that has a beat and sound like music. Everywhere he goes, he's being shushed by everyone... until he gets swallowed by a whale. In this whale he finds fellow aquatic sea creatures that also love music and noise. And there they live well, forever I supposed.
That's the part I'm unsure about. We are just supposed to be okay with this fish getting eaten? Uh huh.

I like the book because it teaches kids about different types of music and that it's okay to be different. The illustrations are not bad from a child's point of view, but as an adult they leave something to be desired.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My six year old enjoyed this, asking to read it over and over. It's definitely in the same vein as "I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean." I enjoyed the jazz music elements, and we were both trying to scat and create our own sounds after reading the book. A fun read.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The kids liked this book. They tried to anticipate the sound effects. But, because it's jazz and they're 0-3, they couldn't. This is a good storytime read,but it needs to be read multiple sessions for the kids to follow along.

[Drucilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actual rating: 2.5 stars. The art was nice, but the story (and the message behind it) is a little depressing.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny story about a fish who just wants to jam. Semi disturbing message as the fish ends up finding a band in a whale's stomach but a hilarious nonsense read-- good for fish story time-- K-4.

[Jennybeast · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, musical picture book, with good sounds to read. About scat.

[Becca Rutkowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a really cute story about jazz and friendship. Until the ending... I may not use this in story times because of the way the story ended.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Jazz is a scat-singing fish who is way too noisy! Will he every find a place to play without being shoo, shoo, shooed away?"--Page [4] cover.

[Miss Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

a little fish loves making music but nobody wants to hear it until he finds a band in the most unlikely place think whales.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting concept (trumpet-shaped scatting fish) but lacking in execution.

[Amanda B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pair with I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean! and Barnacle Is Bored for a very specific storytime theme.

[blue butterfly]

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