Page chronicles the real events of her family's fishing life from the perspective of her oldest son, Taiga, making him the voice of the first-person narration. Taiga and his brother, Ryland, spend a summer assisting their parents on fishing boats in Alaska, where experience becomes their best teacher. Taiga, by neccessity, must help out, catching and cleaning fish, but the entire day is filled with unique and valuable interactions with the natural world. Taiga's father tells of the time he accidentally hooked a porpoise and was unable to free the thrashing creature; the family dog began to ``sing,'' an act that somehow calmed the porpoise. Taiga is sleeping when the fishing boat gets grounded on a rock, but wakes up in time for an encounter with orcas—killer whales—that surround them. He is scared, but the whales eventually pass by, and the family is unscathed. In this setting, nature is neither cute nor predictable—an attitude that recognizes that humans don't control or even completely fathom the workings of the natural world. Bowman's watercolor scenes exhibit an attention to detail and make these stories ring true, capturing the many moods of a summer spent mostly shipboard. Taiga's adventures combine natural history and good storytelling, and will captivate young listeners if read aloud. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-8075-6137-1
Page Count: 42
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1997
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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