A FISHING SURPRISE

In this delightfully simple offering, a boy and a girl spend the day fishing, hoping to catch some fish to fry for supper. Meanwhile, some apples fall into the river and begin to make their way toward the children. As readers follow the apples’ journey, they are treated to several pages of Kemly’s lovely watercolor and pastel illustrations of the wildlife in and around the stream. By afternoon’s end, there are no fish in the bucket, but the children spy the apples floating by. Eagerly they scoop them up, deciding that tonight it will be apple pie, instead of fish, for dinner. McDonald uses short rhyming couplets in fun language that echoes the sounds of the natural world: As two ducks check out the apples floating by, the text reads, “Slish and slosh / Apples wash / Appily quackily / Bobbling happily.” A gentle lesson that nature always provides if we are gracious enough to accept what she offers. (Picture book. 3-8)