Mister Seahorse

I think I am right in saying that Eric Carle is the most popular children's picture book artist living today that eschews the universal convention of facial expressions. Not every illustrator in the world could get away with it. Carle has sort of established a whole new placid unemotional genre all on his own. Consider, if you will, "The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar" who shows one brief moment of bellyache related pain before bursting from his cocoon to become a beautiful unexpressive butterfly. For my own part, this disregard of facial expressions is hard to get through. In one of his latest offerings, "Mister Seahorse", Carle tackles the weighty subject of a father's responsibility to his kin. Since I like this book more than some of Carle's others, I suggest you take the hero's nonplussed attitude as merely a realistic representation of real seahorses in the wild.

One day, Mrs. Seahorse becomes preggers. As is the seahorse custom, she promptly deposits her eggs in Mr. Seahorse's pouch. With the eggs safely ensconced there, Mr. Seahorse goes about his daily rounds. While out, he comes across Mr. Stickleback, Mr. Tilapia, Mr. Kurtus, Mr. Pipe, and Mr. Bullhead. Each fish has his own distinct way of caring for his born and unborn young. For example, Mr. Bullhead baby-sits (admittedly, Carle could have used a better term for this) his newborn hatchlings while Mr. Tilapia carries his young's eggs around in his mouth. Kids reading this book with their parents have the added pleasure of watching Mr. Seahorse as he approaches single fishies hiding in seaweed, behind coral reefs, and in small patches of reeds. In these scenes the page becomes translucent plastic, the reeds, reefs, and seaweed a beautifully painted scene overlaying the action. In the end, Mr. Seahorse's eggs hatch and as one of his little offspring attempts to go back to the pouch he remarks affectionately, "I do love you, but now you are ready to be on your own". Hence the popularity this book has enjoyed as a newfound graduation present for high school Seniors everywhere.

On the back of the book, Carle posts a note that explains how in most fish families eggs are left on their own. This book encompasses the exceptions to that rule, going as far as to show that the father is the main parent in certain cases. Rare but true. The premise is irresistable. One that I'm sure several children's authors are probably kicking themselves for not having thought of on their own first. Flipping through the story, Carle has passed over his normal palette of bright primary colors for deft pastel watercolors. They're still exciting to look through, but there's a definite underwater feel to the luminous pinks, blues, greens and oranges that abound here. According to the book, the art was done in painted tissue-paper collage. The result is a deft interweaving of crinkly creatures in soothing but lively shades.

There is, of course, the writing itself to contend with. Now I'm saying right here and now that this book's premise is good and its art is good. No arguments there. But there's just not much of a plot. It's a simple formulation of "Mr. Seahorse goes here, sees this, goes there, talks to that" repeated roughly four times. Characters do not smile. They speak without a conjunction in sight. It's all lovely to look at and your first reading of the book will be delighted. Your second reading will be a smidgen repetitive, but you'll still love the pretty pictures. And by reading number fifteen you'll begin to wonder why Mr. Seahorse didn't have a little more fun with his eggs. Or ask other fathers more questions. Or even crack a joke once in a while. These complaints, I should admit, are more to do with Eric Carle's writing style and less the flaws of this book in particular. Still, though this book is a beautiful story, it leaves something to be desired.

If you're looking for a good science-based book with excellent information about underwater creatures and an interesting series of facts about male fishies, there are few books better than, "Mr. Seahorse". If you want a story about a father saying goodbye to his offspring and letting them out into the world, "Mr. Seahorse" is your best bet. And if you want a book that is beautiful to look at and contains unparalled watercolors and nifty tricks to make you feel as if you too are under the sea, give it up for, "Mr. Seahorse". But if you want an underwater tale with oomph and pizzazz, choose Leo Lionni's, "Swimmy". This book is far better than "Rainbow Fish", but it still lacks the spirit of little red "Swimmy". In the end, it's an excellent tale in some respects and a mediocre one in others. Depending on what you hope to get out of your picture books, it should satisfy or disappoint you as much as you like. I enjoyed it. Not everyone would.

The book is beautiful but the end of the story is disappointing and upset my 4 year old grandson. Mr. seahorse releases the babies but when one of them tries to return to him he tells the baby it can't come back. I am going to change the ending when I read it. My question is why did Eric Carle end the story on such a unnurturing note? Tough love is hard to understand for a young child.

Like all Eric Carle books it's a beautifuly colored and in his signature style. It features different hidden characters behind acetate.

What make this particularly interesting is that it's all about marine life where the males handle the eggs and not the females.

I found that wonderfully educational to show my kids different sea creatures where the dads carry around the eggs in many many different ways. In their mouths, on their bellies, in pouches etc. until they hatch. I was surprized and loved to see and explain that!

It's a simple concept, whereby if a mom sea creature were to be introduced it would not only physically complicate the illustrated pages, it would also distract from the simplicity of the storyline.

So where are the moms? Does it matter? There's references galore as to how happy the Mrs. must be. This book doesn't suggest single parenting, alternative lifestyles, or anything other than the simple reckognition of marine species caring for their offspring completely different than animals and people and illustrating the differences to children in a simple and eye opening way. It's a "well what do you know"! "Look at how that one does that"! for preschoolers. Simple concepts.

4 stars for refering to one sea creatures particular parental duty as "babysitting" not parenting...

BUT on a very simple note, just tell your child as I did, "oops, that should be parenting and not babysitting because parents can't babysit their own kids, that's their job" NO BIG DEAL. It's pretty darn easy to use some parental wisdom to make that correction. It brings up 2 more lessons. Nobody is perfect and everything that's in print isn't neccesarily the truth (well, an older kids lesson). Eric Carle is an older gentleman. Perhaps it's from his generation or maybe he doesn't have any kids.

I think that the reality and the simplicity of the story makes up for one silly notion that can simply be corrected. No need to make mountains out of mole hills.

Mr. Seahorse carries eggs in his pouch and passes time visiting other Seafaring/living daddies. Beautiful acetone pages teach little readers about the plants underwater and how the fish creatively camouflage themselves to stay safe.

Carle's signature style of illustration captures the delight of my children and of me, too.

I personally laughed at the "babysitting" comment of one of the fish dads. How many times have I heard my friends complaining about fathers terming the time they spend alone with their children as "babysitting"?

Perfect time for the parent reading the book to laugh with the child and say "He isn't babysitting, he is Daddying!"

I learned a couple great "fishy" lessons from this colorful book. Great to read after watching "Finding Nemo." another favorite in my family.

We love Eric Carle's books very much! After visiting an aquarium on our vacation, we decided to buy a few ocean-related books, including this one. The illustrations are, as always very beautiful and catchy. The clear plastic pages through which you can partially see the next page are quite unique. They definitely keep the interest of a young child throughout the book. However, the story lacks development. Mr. Seahorse just swims along and meets other daddies who take care of the unhatched eggs. We still gave the book four starts because the illustrations are fantastic and the premise of the book is cool - dads are not just by-standers in child rearing.

You gotta hand it to Eric Carle for still putting together great visuals and cute stories like this. I never heard of Mister Seahorse until a few months ago, and figured it was one of his books I missed out on when I was a kid. Nope, 'turns out it was released in 2004, but it sure fits in with his other greats like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Quiet Cricket. And just like those books, it sports a unique feature with how the pages are done here and there.

Mister Seahorse takes care of Mrs. Seahorse's eggs one day, and carries them in a pouch on his stomach. He goes around the ocean, and encounters a few other fish that also happen to be dads that are taking care of their eggs too. Between encounters, Mister Seahorse will see different creatures hiding behind rocks, seaweed and other objects, introducing the reader to new kinds of marine life. The final pages have the babies hatching from their eggs in Mister Seahorse's tummy, and they all leave him, ready to go out into the world on their own. One seahorse tries to go back, but, lovingly, Mister Seahorse tells it that while he does love the baby, it needs to go on without him.

This book has the usual colorful Eric Carle artwork with tissue paper, and it looks beautiful. Every book I see by him, it's like his work just gets better and better. And you gotta love the use of transparent sheets to hide some of the fish every couple of pages. One page will say that Mister Seahorse sees something, then the next page is covered by a transparent plastic sheet with something to hide the fish on the page beneath it. Like a big brown rock concealing a big brown fish. When you turn the page, Mister Seahorse is covered by the object, and it still looks good. Kids will love this feature, and my daughter is always eager to turn the clear pages herself.

The only negative thing I can point out is that the book is repetitive with the plot- Mister Seahorse encounters another father fish, tells it that it's doing a good job, bumps into hidden creatures, repeat a few times, but it's been said that children love repetition, so I can't dock points for that. The story is still cute, and the artwork is eye candy galore. Plus this is one of the few kid's books I've seen around that focuses on the dad taking care of his children, and it's good that good ol' Eric did a story with this theme. 5 stars for great art, great use of clear pages, and for being my daughter's second book that she's memorized (the other being Where the Wild Things Are of course).

I took a look at this book because Family Fun magazine liked it, but the now infamous babysitting comment (see other reviews) irked the heck out of me, and I refuse to buy it. Sad, because it's a beatifully illustrated book, but I just find that the most utterly sexist comment. I agree with another poster that said it's PARENTING, not babysitting! Eric, get a life!

My children, 7 and 4 both loved this book. The illustrations were as beautiful as always and I enjoyed the look at sea animals caring for their young, and father sea animals at that. The story was typical Carle in my opinion--we enjoy his books primarily for their inventiveness and beauty.

They start discussions in our home rather than spell it all out for the children.

Once again, loved the fathering in this book. It's worth a peek just for that interesting insight into sea life.

Perhaps it's the watery images or my love for the ocean that drew my heart, but I love this book! Mister Seahorse is a winner, even if the younger ones don't fully grasp the depth of meaning Carle intended. Children innately sense the mystery of life because they themselves know they came from someone, too.
And, like the little baby seahorse, one day they will need to be on their own also. As Crush, the lovable sea turtle in Finding Nemo says, "Sweet, totally."

As always, Eric Carle has created a beautiful book that really captures a child's attention. My 2 year-old daughter just loves this one. She's recently taken to "reading" to me and doesn't much care to be read to these days - this is one of the very few that she requests me to read repeatedly (4 times in a row this afternoon).

Eric Carle usually has some sort of "gimmick" within his books - in this case it is a few pages that are clear, with pictures of seaweed and such, that you can see a fish hiding behind (on the next page).

Why didn't I give it 5 stars? Because of one line toward the end of the story - one in which a fish dad declares he is "babysitting" his own babies! I absolutely cannot stand to hear dads refer to caring for their children as "babysitting." That is wrong on so many levels. I'm thinking of putting a sticker over that and re-writing it - that is how offensive it was to me (and I am not usually a P.C., easily-offended, censoring type of person).

For as offensive as that line is, however, I wouldn't let it prevent you from buying this beautiful, fun book that celebrates fatherhood and different kinds of sea creatures.