Lakas and the Manilatown Fish

By Anthony D. Robles, Carl Angel
Paperback: $11.95

In this bilingual English-Tagalog story set in the U.S., an all-American boy of Filipino descent, some amusing manongs-Filipino elders-and a fish with unusual faculties take off on a fanciful romp through a dreamscape of the imagination.

Description

Can a fish talk? Can it jump and play and run-especially run-just like a small boy? When Lakas and his dad go shopping, they meet a very special fish that can do all these things and more. This fish won’t stay put in his fish tank! Once it leaps out, a cast of unusual Manilatown characters chases it down Kearny Street and all the way to San Francisco Bay. Hoy, hoy! Will Lakas and his friends ever catch this sly and charming fish? Will Lakas’s dearest wish come true?

Author Anthony D. Robles’s irrepressibly lively characters and improbably funny adventure will delight readers. Artist Carl Angel’s evocative illustrations leap off the page and pay affectionate homage to one neighborhood’s Filipino-American past.

About the Creators

Anthony D. Robles
Anthony D. Robles

Anthony Robles is a poet and activist born and raised in San Francisco. His poetry has appeared in many journals and magazines, including Pinoy Poetics and The Asian Pacific American Journal. He is the author of Lakas and the Manilatown Fish and Lakas and the Makibaka Hotel.

Carl Angel

Carl Angel is a visual artist who enjoys participating in the creation of narrative media--whether it is illustration, design, or independent films. He has illustrated, designed, and art directed numerous books for young readers, including Lakas and the Manilatown Fish, Willie Wins, and Xochitl and the Flowers / Xóchitl, la Niña de las Flores, among others. He lives with his wife and son in Burbank, California. Visit his site at carlangel.com

Reviews

  • "This first-ever bilingual English-Tagalog story set in the U.S. is as elaborately staged as a Disney 42nd Street musical—but within shot of The Lion King as entertainment, and a whole lot more authentic. . . Kids captured by the loopy story and the rollicking, high-colored, bang-bang pictures will get the idea without the orientation: that's the charm of the book. . . This is the rare wish-fulfillment fantasy that teaches no lesson, solves no problem; what puts it over the top, though, is the human element—like the silhouetted figures of Lakas and his daddy walking along the street with a bounce, hand in hand."

    - The Horn Book
  • "The brilliantly colored illustrations. . . create a big splash in this entertaining book that will hook kids and reel them right in."

    - The Bloomsbury Review
  • "The text is fanciful and buoyant, evoking swirls of a child's imagination. Carl Angel's brightly-colored illustrations seem to leap off the page at every turn in the same spirit of the renegade fish."

    - The Asian Review of Books

Paperback

  • ISBN 9780892392117
  • Publication Date Apr 01, 2015
  • Trim Size 8.375 × 10.625 in
  • Weight 0.375 lbs
  • Page Count 32
  • Hardcover

  • ISBN 9780892391820
  • Publication Date Jan 01, 2100
  • Trim Size N/A
  • Weight 0.4375 lbs
  • Interests

  • Audience Children
  • BISAC Category 1 JUV / Animals / Fish
  • BISAC Category 2 JUV / People & Places / United States / Asian American
  • BISAC Category 3 JUV / Fantasy & Magic
  • Themes Animals, Asian / Asian American / AAPI, Bilingual, Cultural Diversity, Dreams & Aspirations, Families, Fathers, Fiction, Friendship, Identity / Self Esteem / Confidence, Imagination, Immigration
  • Reading Levels

  • Age Range Ages 6 - 8
  • Grade Range Grades 1 - 3
  • Guided Reading N
  • DRA 30
  • Interest Level Grades 1 - 3
  • Reading Level 3
  • Bebop Reading Fluent
  • This Book is Included in These Collections:

    • 195
      Fluent Dual Language
      Collection of 195 books: $2,435.25