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Searching... Silver Falls Library | JF PAULSEN | Searching... Unknown |
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Searching... Salem Main Library | J Paulsen, G. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
An orphan reflects on the lessons he was taught by the wise old man who raised him in this lyrical novel that reads like poetry from three-time Newbery Honor-winning author Gary Paulsen.
Deep in the woods, in a rustic cabin, lives an old man and the boy he's raised as his own. This sage old man has taught the boy the power of nature and how to live in it, and more importantly, to respect it. In Fishbone's Song , this boy reminisces about the magic of the man who raised him and the tales that he used to tell--all true, but different each time.
Author Notes
Gary Paulsen was born on May 17, 1939 in Minnesota. He was working as a satellite technician for an aerospace firm in California when he realized he wanted to be a writer. He left his job and spent the next year in Hollywood as a magazine proofreader. His first book, Special War, was published in 1966. He has written more than 175 books for young adults including Brian's Winter, Winterkill, Harris and Me, Woodsong, Winterdance, The Transall Saga, Soldier's Heart, This Side of Wild, and Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books. Hatchet, Dogsong, and The Winter Room are Newbery Honor Books. He was the recipient of the 1997 Margaret A. Edwards Award for his lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5 Up-Paulsen's latest tells the story of an orphan living with an elderly veteran of the Korean War who teaches him the old songs, the art of the good hunt, and life lessons, told through tales fueled by moonshine-some of which are true. What is never understood, even by the narrator, is how the boy ended up in Fishbone's care. Sometimes his story has biblical connotations, with the baby having floated to the old man in a chest through the bulrushes; sometimes he is the witches' familiar arriving on a witching stump; and sometimes it is a brutal tale of an unwanted illegitimate distant relative's child being handed from one unloving relation to the next until finally he came to stop in the isolated cabin. Either way, the boy shows up with only a couple months of schooling, supplemented by books from the school librarian that arrive with the man who brings the pension check. The unnamed protagonist finds his way, with Fishbone's guidance, to the simple purity of a life where food comes mainly from what you kill for yourself, and self-actualization is realized in that process. Paulsen's tale is reminiscent of Alice Hoffman's "Green Angel" trilogy and Ernest Hemingway's The Nick Adams Stories, and there is a dreamlike quality to the spare writing. Readers discover the protagonist largely through his relationship with nature. Paulsen himself was a lonely and neglected child who at times had to survive through his hunting skills (My Life in Dog Days), and he describes the methods of clean hunting and killing in detail. His hero speaks in a backwoods vernacular, with phrases, single words, and broken sentences that often read like poetry. The forest environment is crafted like a third character, transporting readers into the natural world. VERDICT Fans of Paulsen and those who love woodsy hunting stories will welcome this latest short novel from the three-time Newbery Honor author.-Jane Barrer, United Nations International School, New York City © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Paulsen (This Side of Wild) again mines themes of resourcefulness and respect for nature in this introspective story of a boy raised in the woods by an elderly hermit. The unnamed young narrator's life is built on uncertainty: he doesn't know when or where he was born, or how he came to live with Fishbone. What he does know is the power of the man's "story-songs," which include poignant flashbacks to serving in the Korean War, his baby sister's death from cholera, and two lost chances at "for sure and true love." Fishbone's stories also serve as character-building lessons, emphasizing the need to live off the land yet leave "No tracks, not a wrinkle to show you were there. No waste. No want. No bother to nobody or no thing." Gradually, the boy learns to search beyond the surface of both nature and Fishbone's anecdotes to find at the center "a seed" that "meant more than the story." His observation that Fishbone "never seemed to waste a word or a thought" aptly describes Paulsen's feat with this compact and eloquent novel. Ages 10-up. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Paulsen's narrator, of indeterminate age and origins, has been raised off the grid by Fishbone, an old Korean War veteran who spends his days sitting in a rocker on his porch sipping moonshine and whose stories teach the narrator life lessons aplenty. Told in a lyrical back-country vernacular, the short novel will feel poetic to some readers but sentimental to others. (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Raised in the backwoods by an old man named Fishbone, a boy in his early teens reflects on what he has learned from his much-admired mentor. Self-sufficient and taciturn, Fishbone likes to hearken back to his own youth (fast cars, old friends, a Korean War wound) when the spirit or the moonshine moves him. With the exception of a few more basic lessons (pee off the porch on the downwind side), he encourages the boy to learn for himself while developing his awareness of the natural world: Hunting is watching. Watching to know. Watching to learn to see and know and learn. A way to get food, but more, more than that a way to learn, to know. A way to be. This sort of repetition of phrases is poetic and, at times, almost hypnotic. Though the jacket illustration, which prominently features a dog, is misleading, and the story's focus on Fishbone may limit the book's appeal for young readers, the story is written with its own brand of eloquence and should appeal to a certain audience.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2016 Booklist