Book Description
for Down by the River by Andrew Weiner and April Chu
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
There’s a lovely sense of the natural world in this quiet intergenerational story about a little boy who goes fly fishing on an autumn day with his grandpa and his mom. While they fish, the boy just learning—and struggling—and Grandpa offering guidance, Grandpa and Mom reminisce about past fishing trips when she was a girl. Both story and illustrations reveal that it’s Mom who is the expert fly-fisher now, and, refreshingly, her skill is simply a matter of fact. At story’s end, the little boy has become the grandpa, passing down the traditions to his granddaughter. Both the family fishing and the natural setting will resonate with many Wisconsin families. The endnotes include basic information about fly fishing, catch-and-release, equipment, and clothing, while the endpages show detailed realistic illustrations of 80 different flies. (Ages 4–8)
CCBC Choices 2019. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2019. Used with permission.