{"id":1205,"date":"2024-04-10T13:50:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T17:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/iapc\/?page_id=1205"},"modified":"2024-04-10T13:50:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T17:50:00","slug":"review-aquarium","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/iapc\/review-aquarium\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Aquarium"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Cover<\/figure>\n<\/div>

\nReview of Aquarium<\/em> by Cynthia Alonso
\nSan Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2018.<\/strong>\n

Reviewed By Samantha Piede<\/em>
\n<\/p><\/div><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

It is all too human to mistakenly presume that our desires mirror those of others: to fail to recognize when what we want for ourselves can sometimes conflict with what is best for those around us.\u00a0 In her 2018 debut children\u2019s text, Aquarium<\/em> (also published in Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish editions), Argentinian author and illustrator Cynthia Alonso offers us a reminder that this can be true not only for our interactions with one another, but with nature as well.<\/p>\n

Aquarium<\/em> wordlessly tells the story of a young girl who dreams of connecting with nature.\u00a0 In the early pages, she ventures forth to a local pier and stares into the water below, daydreaming about swimming among schools of fish and other marine life.\u00a0 Alonso\u2019s decision to render her in a summer dress bespeckled with fish decals cues readers to believe that her preoccupation with the water may have been a long-term fascination.\u00a0 So, when a little orange fish leaps from the water and lands on the pier next to her, the girl can hardly contain her excitement.\u00a0 Rather than toss it back, she gathers the fish up in a plastic bottle and joyfully rushes home.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Illustrated<\/figure>\n

From Aquarium<\/em> by Cynthia Alonso \u00a9 2018 by Chronicle Books<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Once there, the girl tries to replicate the vastness of the fish\u2019s environment by creating an artificial habitat in her living room.\u00a0 She bustles around her home, industriously filling pitchers, pots, and bowls with fresh water and connecting them with elaborate tubing so that the fish can swim between them.\u00a0 Eventually, the network is complete.\u00a0 Though the effort is makeshift, she has created a human-sized \u2018aquarium\u2019.\u00a0 The girl stretches out triumphantly in the center of the habitat, an overflowing kiddie pool, with the little fish by her side.\u00a0 Keen readers will recognize the angle of the image, as well as the girl\u2019s pose and expression, directly parallel those of her daydreams.\u00a0 Perhaps she has finally fulfilled her dreams of living amongst fish.<\/p>\n

However, her victory is short-lived.\u00a0 Her reveries are quickly disrupted when the little fish jumps out of the plastic pool, landing in a puddle of water leaking from the garden hose.\u00a0 As the girl bends to retrieve the fish, she spots her reflection in the water.\u00a0 The reflection of her dress creates an optical illusion, one that makes the single fish appear to be swimming in a much larger school.\u00a0 Immediately, the girl recants and rushes the fish back to the pier, letting it return to its home.<\/p>\n

Alonso\u2019s decision to render this story wordlessly adds elements of interpretive ambiguity that are sometimes lost in texts with pointed narration; we receive limited confirmation of our speculations about the characters\u2019 inner lives.\u00a0 This narrative choice allows readers to speculate about the book\u2019s resolution: What exactly is the nature of the girl\u2019s failure?\u00a0 Why does her artificial habitat fail to give the fish what it needs?<\/p>\n

\n
\"Illustrated<\/figure>\n

From Aquarium<\/em> by Cynthia Alonso \u00a9 2018 by Chronicle Books<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Interpretations here may vary.\u00a0 For instance, readers may suggest that it has something to do with isolation: that a single fish cannot thrive without a school.\u00a0 Such a construal might privilege the reflection of the girl\u2019s dress as well as the final image, in which the little girl is depicted swimming underwater with the orange fish and a larger collection of aquatic creatures.\u00a0 Perhaps what is lacking is same-species company.\u00a0 Others may cite concerns about \u201cspace,\u201d noting that the kiddie pool and kitchen vessels are physically restrictive compared to a vast, natural body of water.\u00a0 Readers might point to the illustrations on the book\u2019s inside cover, which features an illustrative pattern depicting fish tightly confined in singles, pairs, and triples in narrow bowls that allow little room for movement.\u00a0 Several of the fish point their faces upwards, possibly longing for escape.\u00a0 Others still might raise the issue of artificiality: that, even though certain discrepancies of space and company may be resolved in a human home, a human environment can never fully approximate a natural one \u2013 at least in ways that are satisfying for the creatures kept within it.\u00a0 Such speculations are ethically significant, especially in light of the book\u2019s title.\u00a0 In choosing the title Aquarium<\/em>, Alonso reminds us that these concerns are equally applicable to readers whose homes contain fish tanks, birdcages, ant farms, and other artificial microcosms.\u00a0 Readers are prompted to wonder: What does it look like to create the conditions for animals to not only live<\/em> in artificial environments, but to thrive<\/em>? Perhaps this venture is possible with the right conditions, or, alternatively, perhaps something about artificial habitats will always be lacking.<\/p>\n

It is also notable that Alonso chooses to render the fish only as an orange outline.\u00a0 Because she avoids giving the fish any facial features, readers cannot attribute emotional responses to the fish in ways that humans typically recognize.\u00a0 We see the fish escape from its new habitat, but we do not know for certain what<\/em> stimulated the reaction.\u00a0 We know only that it tried to be elsewhere.\u00a0 Alonso\u2019s decision to render the fish a silent and expressionless actor means that we can only know it through its movement \u2013 and, even then, imperfectly.\u00a0 This opens space for questions about human interactions with and understandings of nature.\u00a0 Many people are quick to offer interpretations of animal minds based on human<\/em> constructs and human<\/em> needs as though they hold for all creatures.\u00a0 Like the protagonist, we may presume that animals seek our companionship simply because we seek theirs; we may not pause long enough to consider whether the desire is mutual.\u00a0 Conversely, we might claim the fish is \u2018lonely\u2019 in isolation because, were we to be confined away from other humans, we<\/em> would be lonely.\u00a0 We might describe the tight spaces of water glasses as \u2018stifling\u2019 for a fish because small spaces would be insufficient for us<\/em>.\u00a0 The lack of confirmation from the fish may force readers to pause and contemplate that other species\u2019 minds and needs may be in some ways like our own, but, in others, dramatically distinct.\u00a0 This may stimulate readers to consider the challenges of interacting with species whose needs are not as easily telecasted to us as other humans\u2019.\u00a0 How do we ensure we are acting with their best interests in mind, rather than our own desires?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Aquarium<\/em> is a rare text that, through its silences, creates palpable openings for dialogue, rather than neat answers.\u00a0 In saying so little \u2013 at least in words<\/em> \u2013 Alonso makes space for young readers to say so much more.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Illustrated<\/figure>\n

From Aquarium<\/em> by Cynthia Alonso \u00a9 2018 by Chronicle Books<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is all too human to mistakenly presume that our desires mirror those of others: to fail to recognize when what we want for ourselves can sometimes conflict with what is best for those around us.\u00a0 In her 2018 debut children\u2019s text, Aquarium (also published in Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish editions), Argentinian author and illustrator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":177,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1205","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/iapc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/iapc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/iapc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/iapc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/384"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/iapc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/iapc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1210,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/iapc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1205\/revisions\/1210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/iapc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/iapc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}