Big Dreams, Small Fish
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Sydney Taylor Honor Book
In the new country, Shirley and her family all have big dreams. Take the family store: Shirley has great ideas about how to make it more modern! Prettier! More profitable! She even thinks she can sell the one specialty no one seems to want to try: Mama’s homemade gefilte fish.
But her parents think she’s too young to help. And anyway they didn’t come to America for their little girl to work. “Go play with the cat!” they urge.
This doesn’t stop Shirley’s ideas, of course. And one day, when the rest of the family has to rush out leaving her in the store with sleepy Mrs. Gottlieb…Shirley seizes her chance!
P R A I S E
“Charming. Paula Cohen tells an all-American tale of the Yiddish diaspora.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Timeless: an indomitable protagonist and the loving family who dotes on her.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Beautifully illustrated….Shirley is one smart child, a real asset to her striving family. She is full of innovative ideas, which are depicted by Cohen with both humor and respect.”
—Jewish Book Network
"An affectionate ode to family, fish, and creative problem solving."
—BookPage
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Shirley and her white Jewish family have opened up "a new store in a new neighborhood," and life seems pretty good, except in two respects: no one is buying the homemade gefilte fish ("No one would even TRY it"), and Shirley's parents think she's too young to help them solve this vexing business problem ("We didn't come to this country for you to solve problems," says her father). But Shirley is full of big ideas, and when she's left to mind the store, she includes a free sample of gefilte fish with every purchase. Her parents are appalled—but the next morning, the digitally colored pencil drawings show an ethnically inclusive line around the block of people eager to buy "the new neighborhood delicacy." This Yiddish-punctuated slice-of-life story, Cohen's picture book debut, wears its nostalgia lightly; the narrator's voice is as crisp as the illustrations' black outlines, set in an unspecified era that appears to be the 1930s or '40s. What really matters here is timeless: an indomitable protagonist and the loving family who dotes on her. Back matter includes a glossary of Yiddish words and a gefilte fish recipe. Ages 4–8.
