Tasmania’s spotted handfish is the first creature to feature in a new series of children’s readers by Penguin.

The Endangered Animals Tales series seeks to highlight some of Australia’s most vulnerable – and cutest – wildlife.

The book is a hardcover aimed at early-learning level, and uses biological facts as starting points for the antics of Coco.

It’s not narrative-driven in a conventional way, but it still has a storybook feel as it takes the reader through how the fish lives, eats, moves, survives and indeed reproduces.

There’s even a ‘happy ending’ as Coco waves goodbye to her babies as they swim away on their life journey.

This anthropomorphism – for example ‘the proud mum dances with joy’ – imbues traits that we cannot yet confirm fish actually possess. Thus the line with strict biology is a little fuzzy, but the book is all the more readable for it given the target audience.

The text is as sparkling as it could possibly get at this level thanks to skill of author Aleesah Darlison, who has plenty of children’s books to her name including Stripes in the Forest: The Story of the Last Wild Thylacine.

Illustrations by Mel Matthews are absolutely perfect, bestowing lead character Coco and indeed all the other sea life with tons of personality.

Although not having a great deal of appeal in the storybook niche, for the parent interested in providing some ecological education at storytime it deserves to be on their booklist. The last page (see bottom of the page) of handfish reinforces the points taught in the book.

All things considered Coco, the Fish with Hands is going to be a great learning resource and it’s easy to see this ending up in a lot of schools and libraries across the country and perhaps beyond.

It’s also refreshing to see a publisher explore the myriad native species that have not already been ‘done to death’ in countless ways, or dare we say non-natives like bears and dogs.

We’ve come a long way since a proposed canal development in Ralph’s Bay threatened to wipe the species out. A precarious lot, the red handfish is on the brink of extinction while sadly it’s too late for the smooth handfish.

May you have many more babies, Coco!

  • Published: 1 June 2021
  • ISBN: 9781760899226
  • Imprint: Puffin
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 32
  • RRP: $19.99