Fish Soup

by Ursula K. Le Guin, Patrick Wynne (Illustrator)

Best friends, the Thinking Man of Moha and the Writing Woman of Maho believe that it would be convenient to have a child who could run messages between them, but the magical children that they conujure up are not quite what they had expected

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Ursula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.

She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.

Reviews

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly enchanting little story about setting up misguided expectations for children. Told very simply and accompanied by the most darling illustrations by Patrick Wynne. It's worth getting your hands on a copy if you can find one.

[Kest Schwartzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best part of this book is the flying mice.

[berra · Rating 5 out of 5]

i LOVE ursula. i love her. (and my sister calls me writing woman of maho, love her the most)

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that although there are children out there who'd understand and appreciate this parable about the expectations grownups have, and how kids can change the pattern of grownup lives, there aren't that many of the who would really enjoy this one. It read to me more like a parable for adults. Also the black and white, detail line type illustrations aren't that kid friendly (at least, not as far as my memories of what I liked). The grownups are in too many of the pictures, and they look like strange adults and make me feel shy.

[Allie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is not nearly as charming as A Ride On The Red Mare's Back. It seems much more like a story for adults, illustrated, which magically turned it into a story for kids. I liked it ok, but it's definitely a weird and obtuse choice to give to a child to read. The illustrations are lovely, if very dated, but that hardly matters when the story is so strange.

[Yasemin Salihoglu Karagul · Rating 5 out of 5]

çocuk kitabı gibi görünen ama bence daha çok büyüklerin kendinden birşeyler bulacagi bir kitap. düzenli bir adam ile daginik bir kadin; hayattan beklentiler, orta noktada anlasmalar....

[Sine Polat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ursula’nın çocuk kitaplarındaki bu nazik derinliği çok seviyorum.

[Carfig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The drawings really make this book, with flying mice and all the cats that the Writing Woman has. The woman has a friend, the Thinking Man, and they visit one another every so often and enjoy a meal and some company. He starts thinking about a child--but not in that way--and both imagine a child that could help them make fish soup or caramel pudding.

[Amelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 5 year old really enjoyed having this read aloud to her and found the illustrations charming. The moral of the story (which other reviewers seemed to think was too adult for the child audience) was immediately transparent to her, so I guess Ursula Le Guin was onto something. ;)

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this children's book, Ursula Le Guin tells a very adult fable. The Thinking Man of Moha and the Writing Woman of Maho are friends. When the Thinking Man of Moha gets tired of thinking, he comes to visit the Writing Woman of Maho for tea and conversation. At some point in their friendship, they decide it might be nice to have someone to relay messages back and forth between their two houses, so they conjure up helpers - a boy and a girl - but the children are not what they expected them to be.

The story has some things to say about how opposites attract, but also about how we tend to place our expectations of normalcy on to others, whether that makes sense or not. The Man likes his house tidy, so he conjures up a child who cleans while the Woman likes to see new things and cook and thus conjures up a child who explores and fishes. Le Guin appears to be commenting on the acceptance and appreciation of difference, but doing so in a way that (hopefully?) children can appreciate.

Of the Le Guin children's books that I've read, this is not my favorite. It is quite a high concept piece for a kid's story and thus feels a bit artificial or forced. On the other hand, ignoring the story elements, the monochromatic illustrations by Patrick Wynne are whimsical and entertaining. There are clever details, such as a recurring pair of mice doing various tasks throughout the book. It's a fine, quick read, but not something I would revisit.

[Gülay Akbal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Çok beğendim😍

[Betul Aisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

ha - ri - ka!

[Hilal Yavuz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yazan adam, düşünen kadın. Ahaha olur dediniz ya çocuklar. Bunlardan olur.

[Sudefteri · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ünlü yazarın daha önce çocuk kitaplarını okuyup sevmiştim ama bunu hiç beğenmedim. Ne anlatıyor neyi amaçlıyor belli değil ve anlamsız buldum
resimler de bir acayipti.

[Duyunç Koçöz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even if it has not too much pages, its assosiations are beyond those pages.

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun little fairy tale. It's entirely what you would expect from Le Guin, yet also entirely unexpected.

[belisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

ne yazsa hayran kalıyorum
güzeldi, şiir gibi bir masaldı...

[Isil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bir çocuk kitabı için oldukça ağır, başı sonu belli olmayan bir öykü :/