Sing a Song of Tuna Fish: Hard-to-Swallow Stories from Fifth Grade - Esme Codell

Tales of childhood long ago -- in 1979.

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Common Sense rates it
3
Read the book?
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Book details
  • Author:Esme Codell
  • # of pages: 133
  • Publisher:Hyperion Books for Children
  • Original Publication Date: 04/03/2005
  • Genre: Fiction - Short Stories
  • Hardcover: $14.99
  • Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 10-14
  • Read Aloud: 10+
  • Read Alone: 10+

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that there's nothing strongly objectionable here, though some of the content is aimed a older kids. Mother and daughter egg a car, for example, and there is discussion of walking in a way to attract boys.

Families can talk about childhood stories. Parents can use this as a prompt to tell their kids stories of their own childhoods. Kids can talk about what stories they hope to share with their own families some day.

Message

Social Behavior:

Mother and daughter egg a car.

Consumerism:

Store names.

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

References to adults smoking and getting drunk.

Violence

A boy is killed in a traffic accident, a punch is thrown.

Sex

References to "making out," girls who "butt-switch" when they walk, men trying to entice girls, and a free school where the kids don't have to wear clothes.

Language

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Amy Brotman

Author Esme Codell relates a series of vignettes from 1979, when she was a fifth-grader in Chicago. She describes her neighborhood stores and parks, her relatives, friends, and neighbors, and minor events, such as egging the illegally parked car belonging to a rich person, fighting sexism in temple, trying to avoid her piano lesson, going to a free school, dealing with a big snowstorm, trying to find out about boys, and surprising her grandmother.

Is it any good?

3

This slight but entertaining collection of vignettes (they can't really be called stories) is pleasant and, at times, witty. It doesn't have the power or depth of Codell's previous book, Sahara Special, but then again it doesn't intend to. Kids who clamor for stories of their parents' childhoods will enjoy it well enough, and it may make the adults sharing it with them nostalgic.

The size, typeface, and illustrations make this look like a middle grade book, on the order of the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary. But some of the content, while not strikingly objectionable, is clearly aimed at somewhat older children, such as a chapter on love, in which a friend gives Esme a lesson in "butt-switching,' a way to walk to attract boys. On the other hand, older children may find Codell's way of addressing her readers a bit condescending. This is a pleasant, amusing book, but Codell can do better -- and no doubt will.

From the Book:
I pulled my hand back and flung the egg high into the air. Truly, one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my life was that little ivory missile passing across the moon. It glided through the air so slowly, as though it had wings. Considering it was an egg, it could have had wings ... but we'll never know, because it landed on the hood with a terrible splursh.

Other choices

Also by Esme Raji Codell
Sahara Special

More Autobiographical Short Stories
Father Water, Mother Woods by Gary Paulsen
Walking Stars by Victor Villaseñor

Parents and kids say

All Reviews

There are 1 reviews.

4


Posted on 04/02/06 by GilmoreGirlsFanForever Kid contributor, age 10

Great!

This is a great book with a lot of fun stories!

Adult Reviews

There are 0 reviews.

There are no adult reviews.

Kids Reviews

There are 1 reviews.

4


Posted on 04/02/06 by GilmoreGirlsFanForever Kid contributor, age 10

Great!

This is a great book with a lot of fun stories!
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