Sing a Song of Tuna Fish

This is a memoir, but a memoir written for children, written to encourage children to write their own memoirs.

I love everything Codell has written. I was happy to finally find a copy of this book. I suspected Codel had had an unconventional childhood; this book confirmed it, with artist parents, a stint at an alternative school, and adventures with a matzoh ball.

I saw Esme Raji Codell speak on campus and really enjoyed her presentation, so I was excited to listen to this audiobook. She reads it herself and does a great job with the voices and accents. The stories themselves are very detailed, funny and sweet vignettes of her childhood in Chicago. It's aimed at children, and encourages them to keep diaries so one day they can remember their own childhoods. I enjoyed all the stories individually, but ultimately the book doesn't really have a narrative. It's just random stories until it ends.

I'm recommending it to my mom, though, because she grew up in Chicago around the same time and I think she'd get a kick out of it.