Fish for Supper

Book excerpt: Selected as a Caldecott Honor Book in 1977, and now back in print for the first time in a decade, this is a charming picture book about a grandmother and her simple, idyllic daily routine. Fish for Supper is M.B. Goffstein’s Caldecott Honor story of a grandmother and her regular routine in summer: waking at five o’clock in the morning to make the most of a day on the lake, “with cans of worms and minnows, some fruit for lunch, bobbers, lines, hooks, and sinkers.” Delightfully and wittily, Goffstein departs from the usual fisherman’s tale to give us a day in the life of this no-nonsense, patient fisherwoman who catches “sunfish, crapper, perch, and sometimes a big northern pike,” who capably cleans her catch, and who can bake to boot. She relishes every bite of her well-earned supper, and the pleasure she takes in her self-sufficiency and graceful work becomes the reader’s as well. Based on Goffstein’s own childhood summers at her grandparents’ house on Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota, Fish for Supper transforms her indelible memories into a story that is as honed and gratifying as its heroine’s days.