Feminist Books for Younger Readers: Big Dreams, Small Fish

Big Dreams, Small Fish, written and illustrated by Paula Cohen (Levine Querido, $17.99)

“Buy anything and get a surprise!” is the genius marketing motto of “too little to help” Shirley, who one afternoon finally has an opportunity to implement one of her imaginative ideas to help the new family grocery store succeed.

The one item no one in their immigrant neighborhood will even try is her mother’s gefilte fish, and her idea finally whets the customers’ appetites for the delicacy. Cohen drew on her grandparents’ experiences in this sweet posthumous debut picture book.

Cohen is perhaps best known for her illustrations in Honey on the Page: A Treasury of Yiddish Children’s Literature.