A Foot Is Not a Fish

Cornelia Maude Spelman’s best-selling books are known for their reliable and sensible texts. Pairing rhymes with vivid illustrations, her new picture book A FOOT IS NOT A FISH! (Frederator Books; February 13, 2024) helps parents have fun while showing their children that it is not hard to see what is true and what is not, using absurd comparisons that every child—and parent—will instantly understand. “A foot is not a fish and a cat is not an egg. Chickens do not bark, and a hand is not a leg. a peach is not a pear and a ‘d’ is not an ‘e.’ Things are just what they are, on that we must agree.”

A FOOT IS NOT A FISH! also helps parents make the gentle point that for democracy to work, people need a shared reality: “We need to know just what is true, to know what’s real, what’s not. ‘Cause if we get them all mixed up, we’ll be confused a lot.”

A FOOT IS NOT A FISH by Cornelia Maude Spelman | Frederator Books (distributed by Simon & Schuster) February 13, 2024 | $15.99 Hardcover; ISBN: 9781627261388 | 6.99 Paperback; ISBN: 978-1627261371 | 24 Pages

Publication date: February 13, 2024 PUBLICITY CONTACT:
Reading age: 5-8 years Laura Marie PR laura@lauramariepr.com
As Cornelia says in the introduction: “One of our important responsibilities as parents,
grandparents, and teachers is to reinforce and support our children’s perceptions of reality, and to
strengthen their ability to distinguish what is real, true, and provable from what is belief or opinion or wish. This book aims to playfully illustrate common and observable truths by making absurd comparisons: ‘a foot is not a fish.’ It aims to show that it is not hard to see what is true, and it also tries to establish that, to make sense of our mutual world, agreement about what is true is necessary. What if some of us thought that a foot was a fish?”

Encouraging children to create their own verses (rhyming or not) can be fun, and can further help them in their understanding of what is real and what is not. They undoubtedly will come up with surprising and funny examples of their own.

A________ is not a _________!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Cornelia Maude Spelman, MSW, was a
therapist with children and families before turning full-time to writing
and art. She’s written eleven books for children that help them manage emotion and difficult life situations. Her The Way I Feel series of books for young children, described by reviewers as “sensitive” and “compassionate,” have sold over three million copies and been translated into Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Greek, Japanese, German, Arabic, Turkish, Danish, Russian, and Portuguese. She is also the author of the best-selling Your Body Belongs to You.