Nine Goldfish in David’s Pond

About the Book

One afternoon, David brought home nine goldfish to swim in the pond…Bright orange goldfish, orange and white goldfish, orange goldfish with black freckles, and beautiful black goldfish tumbled out of the bag into the water…

So begins Nine Goldfish in David’s Pond by Ellen Hasenecz Calvert, a story of the Zen beauty of a backyard world and the ten beings who inhabit it: a young explorer, still on the cusp of discovering this private world, and the nine multi-colored fish who will invite him into it, sharing it with him, teaching him, and making a connection with him as he learns to care for them.  It is a soothing story illustrated with charming watercolors, ideal for the child learning responsibility for other living creatures in the world we share.

About the Author

Nine Goldfish in David’s Pond is Ellen Hasenecz Calvert’s second book.  She is a psychologist who left her native New Jersey in 1989 to come to the Southwest, where she fell in love with the land, the culture, and the people who lived there.  While she lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ellen wrote Pilgrim: Tales of a Traveling Cat before returning to her adopted home state of Arizona.

Diana Trucks Fleming, a “southern belle” from Fairfield, Alabama, studied art at the Ecole Nationale Superierure des Beaux-arts de Nancy in France.  Since 1960, Diana has had twenty-five solo exhibits throughout the United States.  Diana enjoys creating watercolor illustrations, hold painting workshops, and offers private instruction to students in Arizona.