This book tells the story of Tiddler, a little grey fish who is never on time but has always got a story as to why.
It sees Tiddler arriving late to school on a few occasions, offering ellaborate excuses for his impunctuality. These tales involve octopuses, shipwrecks and turtles, and the stories spread like wildfire, from one fish, to another, and another...
One day, Tiddler is on his way to school when he is so distracted by daydreaming that he gets cuaght in the net of a fishing boat. He eentually gets thrown back in the water and finds his way back to school when he hears some anchovies talking about one of his stories. He tracks the story back home and arrives at school just as everyone else is leaving.
Tiddler explains hat happened and not everyone believes him, but still the stoy speads until it gets to a writer, which is how the book was written.
Reading this book as an adult, I'm not sure what t is supposed to teach children. On the one hand, Tiddler got into trouble because of his storytelling- getting caught because he was daydreaming- and no one comes to look for him because of his perpetual lateness. In the other hand, his stories are what help him to find his way back home.
Is this book suggesting that lying and story telling is a positive or negative thing? Perhaps hat question could be posed in class to begin a discussion.
Despite not knowing the moral of the story, this is a fascinating book and as I read it, I found myself wondering what would happen next.
The illustrations in the book are beautiful and I can see that children from Early Years to lower KS2 would enjoy the book in different contexts. It could be used as a basis for lessons in art, creative writing or PSHE.