Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Fish Stories















If you have a young fisherman in the family, he or she is sure to enjoy one or both of these titles.

Abe's Fish: A Boyhood Tale of Abraham Lincoln is a picture book based on Abraham Lincoln's only memory of the war of 1812. In his biography his secretaries published in 1890 he is quoted to have said, "I had been fishing one day and caught a little fish which I was taking home. I met a soldier in the road, and, having been always told at home that we must be good to the soldiers, I gave him my fish." The author, Jen Bryant, dexterously weaves this little bit of information with a sense of Lincoln's childhood family dynamics, their hardscrabble cabin living, his love for words and his reflective nature. The illustrations complement the story perfectly, resulting in a pleasant read that children will be drawn to.

Ages 5-10
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Fossil Fish Found Alive: Discovering the Coelacanth is a well told account of the happenstance discovery of an ancient and long thought to be extinct fish. Sally M. Walker does a remarkable job of recounting the initial discovery in 1938 by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a museum director, and all subsequent research up to 2001. The author has a gift for turning comprehensive information into a fascinating easy to digest story. Great photos complement the text. Don't miss this true history of scientific inquiry.

Ages 10 to young adult
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