This is a really cute story with awesome illustrations. ( )

This book is about a story about a book about a fish and snail. When Fish leaves the story because of an argument about what the story or book is going to be about, snail leaves to book to look for fish because that is not how the story is supposed to end. When they find each other, they decide to create their own story together.

Snail waits patiently in his own book for his best friend Fish to bring back stories from other volumes in this meta-fictional tale. But when Fish wants to show Snail the other story, trouble ensues, and an argument breaks out between the two companions. Is this the end of their story? Or will Snail find the courage to leave his book and follow Fish into another one...?

Like the other two picture-books I have read from Deborah Freedman, Shy and By Mouse and Frog, The Story of Fish and Snail is a sweet, meta-fictional delight, one in which the characters themselves are involved with the storytelling process, and interact physically with the book in which they reside. I'm not sure why, but these sorts of tales seem more and more popular of late. I enjoyed the narrative of Snail and Fish, and appreciated the artwork, which captured the eponymous heroes and their changing expressions quite well. Recommended to anyone who has read and enjoys other Freedman titles, as well as to anyone looking for picture-books which break the fourth wall, and involve characters who are very much aware of their status as characters. ( )

49 months - not the first book we've read with this concept but this one was really well done, cute and nicely illustrated. ( )

A delightfully imaginative metafictional picture book. ( )