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Far Enough IslandLesley ChoyceIllustrated by Jill QuinnChildren's chapter book An "Our Choice" selection of the Canadian Children's Book Centre. Order this book: |
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Sarah's family has had a streak of bad luck. Her father is a fisherman and the fish have disappeared. Her mother is worried all the time. It seems that nothing is going right for her family. Sarah's best friend is her dog, Jeremiah, who came into her life in the night in the middle of a horrendous storm. Sarah is concerned about her unhappy mother and her father -- who doesn't always make the right decisions. Here is a story about a young girl's belief in herself, a family's struggle to survive and the desire to hold onto hope even when all hope seems to be gone.
On the boat, Sarah's father roared the engine and they charged toward town.
Sarah knew that her father would never take the boat up the tricky, shallow inlet here unless it was a dire emergency. It was too easy to hit a rock or get stuck on a sand bar. And the boat was his life. It was what her father needed to make enough money for them to live.
"Sit up front and look for logs or rocks or shallow water," he yelled. "Just hold on good."
Sarah had to lie down on the bow of the boat with both hands braced on the wood railing. She yelled to her father to go right or left whenever she saw something ahead. The tide was dropping and the water was getting more shallow.
Her dog, Jeremiah, lay very still on the deck on top of the fish. He was breathing but his eyes looked funny.
"Is he going to die, Daddy?" Sarah asked.
"No," he shouted. "Just keep the look out."
Sarah knew that if they got stuck, they'd never get Jeremiah to the vet in time. She watched the water ahead very carefully, shouting when she saw a grassy shallow or a rock ahead.
Also by Lesley Choyce and Jill Quinn: Famous at Last (ISBN 1-895900-11-5 $8.95).