The Magic Fish

The book is separated into three fairytales with the main story about a son and his mother woven through.

Tiến Phong, a young Vietnamese boy born in America , practices English with his mother Helen, or of her vietnamese name Hiến, by reading fairytales together. The first fairytales is Tattercoats, it tells the story of a young girl whose father sold to an old mythical man from the sea and she decides to run away. She ends up hired at a castle as a kitchen errand boy and forms a relationship with the prince of the castle as both his best friend, when she is working, and as a woman, through balls. It is a pretty straightforward english tale with some vietnamese influence mostly in the visual. In the main story, Tiến struggles to come out as gay to his friend, Julian, who he has a crush on, and his parents, fearing the cultural difference of vietnamese culture. His mom tries to reach her mother and she learns of her worsening health. Helen feals a lot of guilt for not being there to support her mom and her family in Vietnam. This leads her to remember her immigration journey with her husband. This section ends with Helen receiving a phonecall announcing her mother's death.

Helen leaves for Vietnam alone to deal with the death of her mother leaving Tiến and her husband in the United States. The second fairytale is told by one of Helen aunt's. It's a vietnamese tale by the name of Tấm Cám unfolding in the '50s. It shares a lot of similarity with Cendrillon. It follows the tale of a young girl bullied by her step-mother and step-sister, treated as an servant after her father death. One day, the girl finds a talking fish in her fountain and befriends it quite quikly. The step-mother, bothered by the girl sudden positive mood change, investigates and discovers the fish. The step-mother invites the young girl to eat with her and reveals the food was made with the girl's only friend, the talking fish. Words come to the household that a wealthy young merchant is looking for a wife. The step-mother forces the yound girl to divide rice all night to stop her from going to the ball, but, with the help of a talking bird and the spirit of her fish, she comes to the ball all dressed up and catch the merchant eyes. She forgets one of her slipper and the merchant finds her with it, saves her from her step-mother and marries her. The story doesn't end there. On the anniversary of her father's death, the girl visites her old household and gets killed by her jealous step-mother. The step-mother burries her under her tree in the house and fakes concern when the merchant come searching for his missing wife. Grieving, the mechant dreams of a tree and his wife and when he wakes up his wife is back by his side. The step-mother is fuming. The tale ends with the talking bird deceits the step-sister into killing herself and deceits the step-mother into eating her daughter. In the main story, Helen talks about her struggles with her identity as an vietnamese, feeling like she is loosing her language. She achieves some kind of peace after her aunt tale's. At the same time, Tiến clash at school and antagonizes his friends. He ends up making up with both his best friends, Julian and Claire, at the school's ball and comes out to Julian. Julian tells him that he already knew and that he himself is not gay and they laugh together. The teachers notices the boys closeness. Tiến gets an intervention at school. A priest and his teacher push him to keep his sexuality hiden to not break his mom's heart. Helen comes back to the United States.

Helen notices Tiến seems to keep something from her and so she starts the third fairytale, a retelling of the little mermaid. A young mermaid saves an human named Brandon and sacrifies her voice for feet that hurts everytime she walks on them to go into the human world. Over there, she meets Brandon again and she meets Bertie a dancer that sparks this passion in her. In the main story, Helen gets called to school to have a meeting with the priest about Tiến. They come back home in silence and Helen keep telling the tale. The mermaid gets chosen as the lead dancer with Bertie as the other lead. The mermaid gets jealous of the close relationship between Bertie and Brandon. After the dance recital, Brandon asks to speak with Bertie. All of the mermaid's sister have sold their hair for a chance for their sister. If the little mermaid kills Brandon than she can be a mermaid. As she seemingly choose no to, Bertie comes back. Bertie says that Brandon asked her to marry him but that she hopes to be with someone else, a girl. The mermaid says yes and they kiss. Back to Tiến and his mother, he is crying and she tells him that she loves him and that she wants to seem him grow up no matter what.

One aspect noted by reviewers in Trung Le Nguyen's graphic novel is the use of different colors to "distinguish each story line."[1] Kirkus Reviews called it "a road map for readers", with the three colors being used to highlight whether the current panel is "set in the present, the past, or within the fairy tale."[2] Nguyen uses the color red for panels in the present, yellow for those in the past, and purple for panels representing fairy tales, filling the panels with those colors.[3]

Author and illustrator Trung Le Nguyen

The story told in The Magic Fish is partially based on the author's life. Nguyen was born in a refugee camp and moved to the United States with his parents, where they learned English together, which included reading fairy tales.[4] Throughout Nguyen's graphic novel, three fairy tales are shared by the main characters. The first two tales told in The Magic Fish are "Cinderella" stories, and were chosen by the author to highlight the different backgrounds of the son and mother characters. The third fairy tale is Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid".[5][3]

The Magic Fish received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, which noted Trung Le Nguyen's skill at mixing Vietnamese and Westerns fairy tales in his story, while connecting that to the main character's "struggle over coming out." The reviewer also praises the art, saying Le Nguyen's "clever use of color smooths the way for the sophisticated embedding of stories within a story", the technique which is used to highlight "the complex dynamics between first-generation and second-generation family members."[2] Terry Hong, reviewing for The Booklist, called it a "homage to the infinite power of storytelling."[6] A review published on Good Comics for Kidscalled the story "impeccable" and praised Nguyen's art style.[3]

In a review for The Horn Book Magazine, Jerry Dear calls The Magic Fish an "imaginative graphic novel", and noted Nguyen's use of "[p]astel shades of red, brown, and purple" to change between the various stories being told in parallel.[7] Publishers Weekly also praised the author's use of different colors to signify a different layer of reality, and ended the review by saying "Nguyen’s poignant debut captures the perspectives of, and essence of the bond between, a parent and child".[1] The New York Times published a review by Jen Wang, in which she calls Nguyen "a gifted storyteller". Wang proceeds to explain how the author uses the medium of graphic novels and fairy tales to emphasize different emotions, such as "romance or melancholy", and cultures, and finalizes her review by calling the novel "especially inventive."[8]