by Sheila Turnage

Trout the Magnificent. 

Illustrated by Janet Stevens. 

San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers: 1984.

             Trout, a rainbow, applies to the council of animals for wings.   They give him the construction materials necessary, and he eventually begins to fly.  However, Trout soon runs into a dilemma.

Good Points:

• A great springboard for studies about niche and adaptation.
• Highly entertaining, discussion-prompting illustrations.
• Might be better as an invented story to go with the pictures.

Other Notes:

• The characters call one another “stupid” and “idiot.”
• The characters have otherwise problematic interactions with one another.
• In the illustrations, Trout is missing a few fins (pelvic, ventral, adipose).
• Trout’s caudal (tail) fin is oriented in the wrong direction.