Created by Belgian illustrator Guido van Genechten and first published in 2004, these books are perfect for preschoolers. The cute illustrations are set against a black background, which makes the brightly coloured sea creatures really pop within the pages.
The Little White Fish series playfully combines elementary concepts within the storyline. For instance, in Little White Fish has a party, we meet all his guests, who have turned up in pairs. The long sea snake and the short sea snake; the big sea urchin and the small sea urchin and so on. My little one absolutely loved looking at the beautiful sea creatures while learning opposites. Now she can labelled all the sea creatures in Chinese, as well as their attributes.
Furthermore, each book has a simple yet familiar storyline for young children. Another firm favourite in the house is the original Little White Fish which in Chinese has a more apt title 小白鱼找妈妈。This book depicts poor sad Little White Fish going around the ocean looking for mom. He meets a whole lot of other sea creatures who are not mom. My little one had a lot of fun recognising same/different in this particular book, and even more fun saying “不是!不是!不是妈妈!”
Below is a video of the “Little White Fish has a party” book read in Chinese.