I am a huge fan of Barrington Stoke books and the Little Gems series but while this one is a sweet story I was left with so many questions. I kept wishing this book had a notes or back matter section.
What year is this book set? There is a hint that ABBA is a popular music group. Mamma Mia is mentioned and after some quick research I discovered that song was released in 1975. The publisher site says this book is set in post war Poland so I would have assumed it was closer to 1950-1960.
What was life like in Poland during this time if the setting is 1975? The story refers to food queues but perhaps this is just to emphasise that Lucja has an impatient personality.
The story also refers to the black market:
"Even the soldiers pretended not to see the old women who walked around the streets of Warsaw with big baskets that looked as if they were full of rags. ... Inside the basket were plastic bags, and in the bags there were lots of different sorts of meat."
Is Lucja neurodivergent? She cannot sit still. She cannot concentrate? She asks questions but does not listen to the answers. Yet she is also very focused on topics that interest her and has a keen eye for tiny details.
What is the tradition of fish for Christmas Eve dinner? Is this always carp? How is it cooked?
What has happened to the grandfather in the past? He is so bitter about Germans and Communists.
"No German or Communist is going to tell me I can't eat the fish from Polish rivers. First they took my house, they they blew it up, then they built us this ugly block of concrete. But I will have my carp. I have to make a stand."
The old woman does bring a fish for Grandpa. Trouble is - it is alive. They put it in the bathtub. Lucja seems to know a lot about the care of fish. She is also able to sit still with her fish. She enjoys talking to him and a friendship begins to form. Of course every reader will anticipate the problem. Christmas Eve is not far away. Grandpa wants his carp dinner but there is no way Lucja will allow him to "kill" her beloved fish.
This slim book has 54 illustrated pages. It is an enjoyable story but I just had so many unanswered questions. This story was first published in 2007 as one story in an anthology with the title The Midnight Feast. Then Barrington Stoke published a version in 2014 with colour illustrations and later my copy was published in black and white in 2022. You can read the first chapter here.
Blurb: Heartwarming story set in post-war Poland charting a grandfather-granddaughter relationship, from the bestselling Artemis Fowl author. Little Lucja's Grandpa Feliks has seen off the German army, and the Communists, and now he is looking forward to a long and peaceful retirement. He plans to begin with a tasty Christmas Eve dinner of carp. But when the carp arrives alive and takes up residence in the bathtub and Lucja's heart, has Grandpa Feliks finally met his match?
Here is the website of Irish author Eoin Colfer who is famous for his Artemis Fowl book series.
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