Fish for Supper

by M.B. Goffstein

Describes Grandmother's typical day of fishing.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Kids, Juvenile

31 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Marilyn Brooke Goffstein
Also published as Brooke Goffstein

American Author and Illustrator
Grew up in St Paul Minnesota
Graduated from Bennington College in Vermont in 1962
Lived in New York
Taught Children's Book Illustration at Parsons School of Design
Works in pen, watercolor and pastels

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hmm. I don’t really know what to make of this. It feels more like a Sunday morning cartoon than it does a story. It’s very short and quick and it looks like a very basic and simple pen drawing. I really can’t believe this was nominated. I don’t see any real artwork here. It is the most unique and unusual book in Caldecott and it’s Out of Place. It doesn’t belong here.

The story is a woman gets up early to fish all day and then eats it for dinner and goes to bed to do this again. So strange.

I would like to thank Jen for passing this book on to me. Thank you! It’s one of the Caldecott books I was unable to get.

The nephew asked me if this was done by a kid his age. He thought it was a kid writing this. He thought this was boring. The niece agreed. She laughed at it. They both gave this 1 star. It did not feel like a real book.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much longer than a bumper sticker or coffee mug, but much more profound. It is the simple things in life that give us pleasure. Live the way you want to, without worrying about whether other ppl think it's boring or whatever. The small format and the clean line drawings bring the theme home.

Said better by Maria Rowe in her review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Guilherme Semionato · Rating 3 out of 5]

Open Library.

[Colby Sharp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book. So simple, yet such a strong message.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a basic, but charming little story about a grandmother’s daily routine. The illustrations are spare, tiny, and colorless, but they have a cartoonish quality that makes Grandma an appealing character. I love how prim and proper she looks in every image, whether she’s handling her boat or cleaning her fish. I’m a little bit surprised that a quiet, simple little book like this was ever given an award, but clearly there is more to it than just the daily activities of a grandmother.

[Aymee Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed how simplistic this book was, both in words and illustrations. The illustrations match the wording perfectly. The illustrations were not awesome, but they were simple and conveyed the message. I love that the story was written about a grandmother who enjoys spending her days on the lake fishing. It shows the grandchild's love for her grandmother

[Mckinley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple and well done.
Caldecott honor

[Brindi Michele · Rating 1 out of 5]

1977 Caldecott Honor

Really? You're kidding me, right.....maybe a consideration in the 40s, not the 70s.

[Maria Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

• 1977 Caldecott Honor Book •

Charming little book! Grandma's daily routine makes for a sweet story. I really like the simplicity of it and the very precise line drawings. It's a simple story, so the simple art really works. This is a small book - maybe 5.5 x 7 inches, and I love the intimacy it brings. So many childrens books are so big and unwieldy, that they create a distance between the reader and the book. I just really love how she has a routine, that she takes happiness in what she does, that she doesn't get fish the easy way (at the store), and a part of me really likes that this is a woman going fishing by herself. This book was written in the 1970s. I don't know much about fishing, but I feel like it's mostly been a male dominated activity, so the fact that this grandma goes fishing every day for dinner by herself is pretty cool. The more I think about this book, the more I really like and appreciate it!

Materials used: unlisted
Typeface used: unlisted

[Peacegal · Rating 1 out of 5]

While this is a nice primer for children regarding sequence and cause and effect, I can't say I enjoyed the subject matter (catching, "cleaning," and eating fish). I really wouldn't suggest this one for the veg*n families out there (if you can't tell by the title).

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short simple book with black ink illustrations of a grandmother catching her daily meal of fish, preparing and eating it. It won a 1977 Caldecott Honor award. I liked the illustrations. Recommended for ages 2-6, 3 stars.

[Luann · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very simple story with very simple illustrations. I don't understand how or why it won a Caldecott honor. Am I missing something? If this is award-winning art, then I definitely am missing something.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Caldecott Honor, 1977

Art Medium: Ink

[Aubrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple story with simple black & white artwork. About someone's grandmother's daily routine of fishing. Positive portrayal of self reliance and non-stereotypical roles of older women.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute, simple story, and I'm sure that these memories mean a lot to the author. However, this was not a simple story and simple illustrations that seemed in anyway distinguished to me.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fish for Supper is a masterly gem of prose and illustration. Told as a memory of a grandmother’s day in the life—getting up early, spending the day fishing, eating the fish for dinner, followed by going to bed—the life is orderly but not rigid, and free of fussiness. It is a life in balance. Originally published in 1976, it is also a Caldecott Honor Book.

Only one small picture per page, underscored by a handful of words—fragments of a complete sentence. The first sentence alone is 37 words long told over 5 pictures. I point this out because social media has done much to erode attention spans. The shorter the sentence, the less likely it will be able to convey complex information. Although Goffstein wrote this before the age of attenuated attention, research I’ve read says that even college-educated adults feel intimidated by sentences over 18 words.

[Melanie Duvic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fish for Supper, written and illustrated by M. B. Goffstein, is a 1977 Caldecott Honor Book. This fiction children’s picture book is entirely illustrated in black and white and delivers an astonishingly short and simple story of a grandmother and her regular summer routine of going fishing. The author based this book off her own childhood memories at her grandparents’ lake house. The colorless illustrations are spare and tiny, but they are parallel to the simplicity of the text and convey the message. They are drawn in an ink sketch medium with thin black lines and little detail.

[ElleryS · Rating 2 out of 5]

Contemporary realistic
1st-2nd grade reading level
This book confused me a little. It was nice and simple, but the illustrations seemed very simple and...un-award-winning as well. There was nothing wrong with this story, but I don't see why it would interest a child. Perhaps if they really enjoyed fishing, it might be a little interesting for them. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't recommend this book either for solo reading or a read aloud.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Follows a grandmother through her daily routine of getting up, fishing and then eating what she caught for dinner. It is accompanied by simple pencil drawings. This picture book is okay but its kind of boring and I don't think the illustrations are that great. Certainly not award worthy. Others seem to love it but its not for me.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book due to a reading challenge asking me to find a book written by an author with the same initials as myself. MB Goffstein is the author of a Caldecott Honor book from 1977. Simple line drawings show grandma rising early, eating breakfast quickly, fishing all day, making fish for supper and doing it all over again.

[Claudia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure what made this a Caldecott Honor winner - very spare pencil sketch-like illustrations. Not much of a story, just what grandma does every day (spoiler alert- she goes fishing). Not exactly good fodder for a children's picture book.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

*2.5

1977 Caldecott Honor

[Yasmin M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely and simple, very nostalgia-driven.

[MaryAnne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very simple story of the daily routine of a grandmother who fishes everyday for her supper. The simplicity of the black and white line drawings matches the text.

[Cassandra Gelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Catch fish. Eat fish. Repeat.

Really short book with very few words. Pretty boring. It's only a few sentences spread out over all the pages.

My grandmother went fishing. She did X, Y, Z, and then at the end she went to bed so she could get up to go fishing the next day.

It's descriptive. The pictures are all line drawings, very simple, with not a lot of detail. There's also not a lot of detail in the story. Nothing's happening, really, except the day of a woman fishing, making herself food and then eating. That's it. This woman's life is very boring. She doesn't do anything, and she doesn't have any family or see anybody else. She just goes out and fishes.

For more children's book reviews, see my website at http://www.drttmk.com.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

The narrator tells the story of his grandmother getting up early and going fishing, catching crappies, perch, Northern, etc. Those are fish I caught with family vacation in northern Wisconsin, so I appreciated that. But the grandmother was the only character. She didn't make the fish for a family to share. She didn't fish with anyone. It was just the grandmother. And the pictures were the most lackluster pictures of any of the Caldecott Winner or Honor books. I feel like I'm missing something. Usually even with the books I don't like I can still figure out why they won the award or honor. I just can't figure it out with this one. And it wasn't even that early, it was 1976, so there definitely could have been color.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This picture book is too simple. The illustration is simple, so as the story. We all know how simple one's routine is, but I doubt that whether it is worth to be described in a picture book. Isn't it boring? I might just enjoy reading the grandmother's usual routine, but I think I am already old enough to be willing to find fun or lesson in a book.

[Debby]

Very brief story of what grandmother does when she goes fishing.

Mediocre book. VERY simple ink sketches in black and white.