The Two-Thousand-Pound Goldfish

by Betsy Byars

In order to cope with the absence of his mother, young Warren Otis uses his imagination to create grand tales, such as sometimes imagining that his mother will someday return to him. Reprint.

Genres: Young Adult, Childrens, Middle Grade, Juvenile, Fantasy

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 1982

About the author

Betsy Byars was an American author of children's books. She wrote over sixty books for young people. Her first novel was published in 1962. Her novel Summer of the Swans won the 1971 Newbery Medal. She also received a National Book Award for Young People's Literature for The Night Swimmers and an Edgar Award for Wanted ... Mud Blossom!!

Daughters Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers are also writers.

Reviews

[Josiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has any Newbery Medal-winning author proved more capable of portioning out the real stuff of life than Betsy Byars? I can list a dozen of her junior novels that changed me with their startling recreation of the human experience, offering a brief window into the characters' lives before we bid them goodbye. Nine-year-old Warren Otis lives with his older sister Weezie and their grandmother in the city, but what most defines him is his imagination. He constantly dreams up ideas for scary movies he wants to make, even when he's with people. It irritates some, but this is who he is.

"(T)he government's just like a great, terrible ball, and when it starts rolling it crushes half of what it rolls over and picks up the other half. And it gets bigger and bigger and more powerful, and somebody's got to stop it."

—Saffee, The Two-Thousand-Pound Goldfish, P. 57

Warren and Weezie's mother, Saffee, spent years as an anti-government activist. Warren was left fruitlessly chasing her attention, but it grew worse. Saffee fell in with a quasi-terrorist group that put her in jeopardy of prison; for years she's been on the lam, staying one step ahead of the shoeshine. Warren has nearly come to accept his mother's absence...until the day he spots Weezie crying in a telephone booth. Only a call from their mother could elicit that reaction. Always more hopeful than his sister that their mother will return for them, Warren's optimism flares. Are his dreams on the verge of reality?

Questioned by her brother, Weezie denies any call from Saffee, and Grandma scoffs at the notion. Their attitude makes Warren more sure he's right. He continues fleshing out his latest movie idea, a 2,000 pound goldfish in the sewers that ingests humans, but he sets aside as much energy toward envisioning cinematic scenarios for his mother's comeback. He imagines Saffee discarding her neglectful tendencies and embracing a role as his caretaker. Are these dreams at all moored in reality? Grandma has taken his mother's place for years with little complaint, but has serious health issues; what if something happens to her? Could it bring Saffee out of the woodwork? Warren is sure of one thing: he'll do whatever's necessary to see his mother face to face.

A dreamer like his mother, Warren prefers putting off daily responsibilities so he can follow the narratives in his head. Maybe that's why Saffee is an activist; she believed her own narrative that she could transform politics so peace and justice would reign, and it led her to sacrifice everything for the cause. She chose to do so via politics rather than investing in her children to grow up and make the world a better place. All this is hard for Warren to grasp, but his conviction that Saffee is a hero runs soul deep. Will his movie ideas be a consuming passion when he's older, as activism is for his mother? We get only one life with loved ones; squander it and the years are never refunded. That's why it's poignant to watch Warren pass beyond the window that is this novel into a future as unpredictable as his mother's.

I'm not certain The Two-Thousand-Pound Goldfish is potent enough for a full three stars, but at least two and a half rounded upward. Betsy Byars doesn't insult our intelligence by maneuvering to a happy ending that would feel fake; she gives Warren the dignity of moving toward an authentic future filled with both promise and pain. The title is wacky, but this book is very grounded, and I'm grateful Ms. Byars invited me to spend time in Warren's company.

[Duane · Rating 1 out of 5]

I usually like this author's work, but this book really dissapointed me. Warren is a young boy who daydreams of the horror movies he hopes to one day make. His daydreams help him escape his real life that consists of a eco-terrorist, missing mom, a older sister who really doesn't pay attention to him, and a grandmother who has wiped her memory of his mother. His horror movie escapes are interesting, but overall, this book just doesn't really come together for me. Am I suppose to feel sorry for the mother who chose terrorist ideals over her kids? Am I suppose to admire Warren for loving his mother even though she does the things she does? I just didn't enjoy this read. I won't reccomend this book to anyone.

[Twyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favorite part was when warren got to talk to his mom.the worst part was when his grandma died.my favorite character was warren because he was the main character.there was no worst character.Auryn 9 years

[Patrick Pottorff · Rating 1 out of 5]

The most disappointing book of my childhood. Kid’s life is terrible so he fantasizes about a giant goldfish.

IF YOU’RE GONNA WRITE A CHILDREN’S BOOK ABOUT A GIANT DAMN GOLDFISH, THERE BETTER BE A GIANT DAMN GOLDFISH.

That is all.

[Sam Maquet · Rating 1 out of 5]

awful

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boy we have come a long way in YA books. This one, sadly, hasn't aged well in 40 years. Granted in the modern world of dystopias, vampires, dragons, and love triangles this was a welcome reprieve. The plot itself was interesting enough: Weezie and Warren living with their Grandma (who named her children after seasonings a la the 60s/70s) because their activist Mother is one of FBI's wanted. I was, however, bored by Warren's "daydreaming". I think Byars hoped to use it as an escape from reality for Warren and a device to advance the plot. It didn't work. It kept the reader removed from the story and allowed them to not invest in the characters. The sad thing is, a story like this could be so layered. How *are* children with incarcerated or wanted parents supposed to navigate this trauma? There were a lot of great opportunities for a real exploration of that, but Byars avoided it. Weezie felt some very real emotions that differed wildly from Warren's and I found both to be valid and worth investigation. In short, the book was too trite for the subject matter, even for a younger reader.
It is a quick read, I just think there are too many great books to give much space to the mediocre.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

LFL find. This copy loved to pieces. I enjoyed the original treatment of a fairly familiar plot of children abandoned to their grandmother: the boy's imagination is especially enchanting. But I seriously wanted to get to know everyone else a bit better. I'd like to think that I'm better at reading between the lines than the target audience, and yet I still feel that I don't understand them at all.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who daydreams quite often ("maladaptive daydreaming" is a thing), I related to Warren and his retreats into a fantasy world. When I was his age I used to always have books I was writing in my head - except I never actually wrote them. Somehow just having the storyline in my head was enough.

[reQi · Rating 4 out of 5]

småläst mellan annat. ganska tungt m tajmingen angående mormorn. puh.
ganska gullig historia jag fick som barn på barnboksfestivalen på bibblan.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book. Still thinking about it.
This is a book for kids - the main character is about middle school age.
Great characters, story.

[Books Kids Like · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since his mother left, Warren has been obsessed with sci-fi thrillers. Warren Otis believes that she is a revolutionary hiding from the FBI. He spends much of his time daydreaming about the movies he will produce when he grows up. Warren conveniently has his monsters eat the people that bother him. Nothing bad ever happens to Warren's mother. She has enough trouble without man-eating snails or radioactive cows. One night, Grandma sends Warren to the library to get Weezie. He finds her talking on the pay phone outside and is surprised to find her crying. He quickly surmises that she is talking to their mother. Weezie denies it, but their Aunt Pepper tells Warren that his mother prearranged to call every first Monday at 7 p.m. Often, Warren remembers back to his mother's departure, and he covets the postcards she sends. He's very jealous of Weezie's monthly conversations with their mother, and she is quickly devoured in Warren's present thriller, The Two-Thousand Pound Goldfish. When Grandmother dies of a stroke, Warren hopes that his mother will come to the funeral, but she does not. Shortly after this, a first Monday arrives. Warren goes with Weezie and insists on talking with his mother. The conversation is unrewarding and much too short. It leaves Warren feeling very dissatisfied, a feeling Weezie has experienced each first Monday. As Weezie and Warren walk home, Warren resolves to daydream less. He is beginning to understand that reality with Weezie and Aunt Pepper, who will now care for them, is better than daydreams about his absent mother.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A kid named Warren obsessively creates horror movie scripts to distract himself from the pain of missing his mom, who belongs to a Weather Underground type activist/terrorist organization and is on the run from the FBI. The author keeps her dramatic plot feeling real by focusing so tightly and truthfully on Warren's emotions that you kind of feel like the book was written by the most loving and understanding second grade teacher ever to exist. I liked how Warren and his sister have different fathers--I feel like that's a subject not often explored in books for children--and I loved how each chapter opened with cheesy dialogue from one of Warren's movies, e.g., "If I didn't know better, I'd think something metal was coming down the stairs. Well, it's probably nothing, but I'd better go check."

[Clint the Cool Guy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is so awful. I read it as a kid and it didn't make any sense to me then. I read it again as an adult to see if my opinion changed. God, no. It's tripe! It's about a kid who daydreams and misses his mom who abandoned him. That's it. Nothing interesting happens in the story, and there is zero resolution. How did this thing even get published? I am very annoyed because the cover looks cool, but it didn't deliver. I've learned to stay away from "deep" and "award winning" children's books, because of junk like this.

[Susan Katz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An old favorite from the always delightful Betsy Byars. Not only is Warren's obsession with monster movies a successful and original counterpoint to a mother lost in the political world, but for me it has the added fillip of reminding me of my son's foray into monster movies at a similar age - though for him it involved a cohort of his friends and a wreck of an old video camera. Not to mention such brilliant cameo roles for Mom as the soon-to-be-eaten Hatshepsut Smith.

[Rhiannon20 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is about this kid who loves horror movies,(but the book is kind of old so the effects he describes in the movies are CHEESY),and has a mother who is on the run from the FBI.
I'm not so sure about this book. There's not alot I can relate to, so for me it was quite dull.

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Readers Choice Nominee 1985, probably the first book I read by Byars who became one of my favorite youth authors.

[Mil818 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. I read it 4 years ago and still sometimes I take it off the shelf and read it.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as a kid and loved it. Did a book project on it. And I am thinking of picking it up for my niece.

[Annalisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wrote a book report on this when I was a kid... Don't remember when.