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Anglers Book Supply Co 0-06-051606-2 Fishing In The Air
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About the Author

Sharon Creech has written twenty-one books for young people and is published in over twenty languages. Her books have received awards in both the U.S. and abroad, including the Newbery Medal for Walk Two Moons, the Newbery Honor for The Wanderer, and Great Britain's Carnegie Medal for Ruby Holler.

Before beginning her writing career, Sharon Creech taught English for fifteen years in England and Switzerland. She and her husband now live in Maine, "lured there by our grandchildren," Creech says.

www.sharoncreech.com

Chris Raschka is the creator of many distinguished and award-winning books for children. He has received two Caldecott Medals--one for The Hello, Goodbye Window, written by Norton Juster, and one for his own A Ball for Daisy. He also received a Caldecott Honor for Yo! Yes? Chris Raschka was the US nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2012 and 2016 and has been awarded a New York Times Best Illustrated Book citation five times. He lives in New York City with his family.

Reviews

In an inspired pairing, Creech and Raschka combine their considerable talents for the poignant exploration of the ties that bind one generation to another. Creech (The Wanderer) sets the stage for a father-son fishing expedition that's about much more than catching supper. As the two start out in the "blue-black" early morning, the father tells his son, "We'll catch the air! We'll catch the breeze!" The father fires his son's fancy, pointing out street lamps like "tiny moons" and trees like "tall green soldiers standing at attention"; Raschka (Yo! Yes?) subtly traces their transformation across neat horizontal rows. When the pair reaches the river, the man drops his line into the water at the top left-hand corner of the spread while the boy casts his line into the air from the bottom right-hand corner of the spread. The father then enters a reverie, recounting memories of his childhood home to his son, in a narrative that winds as gracefully and smoothly as the river itself; in a cumulative echo, the son prompts him to fill in more details. Raschka gradually incorporates each new detail in his illustrations until the reverie overtakes the page; the two characters, once upright, now seem to float like Chagall figures across the spreads, or somersault down the sides-always remaining separate yet answering each other visually as much as verbally. This gradual building up of narrative and illustrative brush strokes erupts in a glorious climax, in which the father expresses his nostalgia for that lost time ("Oh, where is that house?? And where are those fields and that river and that father and that boy?"), and the boy and the father now reach for each other, the father having caught his son's line (the little boy having answered, "Right here"). Creech's narrative is more poetry than prose; her quicksilver description and quietly repetitive phrases serve to deepen the growing connection between father and son, and her images are made for Raschka's brush. Author and artist evoke an idyllic outing between parent and child and demonstrate that while they may return empty-handed, their hearts are full. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

K-Gr 3-A father and son go fishing to "catch the air" and to "catch the breeze" and readers see some of the many threads that connect the generations in this poetic story. As they drive through the dark city into the bright country morning, the man's words and Raschka's pictures lead the boy and readers to see everyday objects differently and to imagine the past. Streetlamps become moons and trees become soldiers. The father describes his boyhood home and explains that his father took him fishing. When the father muses about what happened to the boy he had been and the father he had, his son replies that they are "right here" and readers will feel that it is true and will continue to be true through the generations. As the text builds images, Raschka's exuberant, Chagallesque illustrations seem to float in color-splashed circles around it on some pages, reinforcing the cyclical theme. Later, they form a figure eight connecting the father and son, and on the final page they form a valentine surrounding and "catching" the pair. While the text and images are evocative and memorable, this book is likely to have more appeal to adults than to concrete-minded youngsters. Fanciful conceits such as catching "a slice of yellow sun" and a "white white cloud" may be more confusing than meaningful to a young audience. Still, it is a moving celebration of a father-and-son relationship. Encourage children to compare and contrast it with Jane Yolen's Owl Moon (Philomel, 1987) for an interesting early-grade literature lesson.-Louise L. Sherman, formerly at Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

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