The Rainbow Fish is a children's picture book drawn and written by Swiss author and illustrator, Marcus Pfister, and translated into English by J. Alison James.

His only remaining friend, the starfish, tells him to go visit the wise octopus (named Wanda in the TV series) for advice.

At that time, Marcus Pfister suggested using holographic foil for the scales, a technique used in graphic design but not yet seen in children's books.

"[3] There are sequels in the Rainbow Fish book series: There is also a Spanish language edition of The Rainbow Fish, El Pez Arco Iris, as well as bilingual editions in English paired with Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Vietnamese.

[citation needed] From School Library Journal: The delicate watercolors of underwater scenes are a perfect foil to the glittering scales that eventually form a part of each fish's exterior.

[citation needed] The late Ernest Borgnine read The Rainbow Fish as part of Storyline Online.

[7] Model Winnie Harlow read The Rainbow Fish as part of the #SavewithStories program led by Jennifer Garner.

[8] On March 25, 1997, an animated adaptation of the story book was released on VHS and DVD (known as The Rainbow Fish and Dazzle the Dinosaur).

The home video releases also contain the film Dazzle the Dinosaur which is based on another book written by Pfister and published in 1994.

[10] In an interview with Publishers Weekly, Marcus Pfister said "while I was at the Art School of Bern, I came to know about all the major Swiss children’s book illustrators.

"[3] In the June 2019 issue of Reason magazine, libertarian journalist Matt Welch wrote an article titled "Don't Be Like the Rainbow Fish",[11] in which he described the ways in which the Rainbow Fish in the book acted quite differently from that of the author of the book, Marcus Pfister, in Welch's view.

Using an expensive and novel combination of holographic foil stamping and watercolor, the Swiss-born Pfister and his publisher, NorthSouth Books, produced a striking visual package that proved irresistible.

[11] Former conservative radio host Neal Boortz said that The Rainbow Fish in his view was, "...one of the biggest pieces of trash children's books ever published"[11] for the similar reasons to that of Welch, as Welch states in the Reason article, "...[the Rainbow Fish] only gets truly ostracized because he won't hand over his body parts on demand, in the name of equality.