THE FINTASTIC FISHSITTER

Fishsitting a zombie is hard enough…a vampire kitten can make it nigh impossible.

Tom and Pradeep share the care of zombie goldfish Frankie, who has hypnotic eyes. When they leave Frankie in the care of Sami, Pradeep’s little sister, they also leave a detailed list of instructions, with a special emphasis on keeping Frankie safe from Fang, Tom’s older brother’s vampire kitten. Sami takes her job seriously, but vampire kittens are extremely sneaky. Fang catches Frankie and uses the power of “kitty cuteness” to mesmerize Sami into kittysitting as well as fishsitting. When the “games” Fang and Frankie dream up to play threaten to squash, splash, or zombify each other, Sami forces the dueling duo to play her game…which is highly embarrassing to both. U.K. author O’Hara’s first fish tale for a younger audience based on her series of illustrated chapter books will be beneath the notice of Frankie’s existing fans and doesn’t offer more than a retread of Tom & Jerry to hook newbies. It’s unclear why embarrassing the duo makes them “get along” (for a moment), but the boys reward Sami for doing a good job. Jagucki’s rounded, bright cartoon illustrations are active, attractive, and fun; but they don’t much enliven the humdrum story.

This fish tale falls flat.