Can a fish talk? Can it jump and play and run just like a boy? When Lakas and his dad go shopping, they meet a very special fish that can do all these things and more! Once it leaps out of its tank, people all over Manilatown chase it all the way to San Francisco Bay. Hoy, hoy! Will Lakas and his friends ever catch this sly and charming fish? Will Lakas' dearest wish come true?
In this bilingual English-Tagalog story, an all-American boy of Filipino descent, some amusing manongs—Filipino elders—and one unique fish take off on a fanciful romp through a dreamscape of the imagination. Anthony Robles' improbably funny adventure will delight readers, and Carl Angel's evocative illustrations leap off the page in affectionate homage to one neighborhood¹s Filipino-American past.
Anthony D. Robles was born and raised in San Francisco, California, where he lives today. A writer and activist, Robles’s work is highly influenced by his family, culture, and the working class community. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including DisOrient Journalzine, Pinoy Poetics, The Asian Pacific American Journal, and Seven-Card Stud and Seven Manangs Wild.
Carl Angel is a painter, illustrator, and graphic designer whose work is exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Born in Maryland, and raised in Hawaii, he attended the California College of Arts and Crafts, and the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, California. Carl lives San Leandro, California with his wife and son.
"'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." —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
