Shark Beneath the Reef - Softcover

George, Jean Craighead

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0064403084 ISBN 13: 9780064403085

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1991

Synopsis

Like his father and grandfather before him, 14-year-old Tomás Torres dreams of catching a great shark in the Sea of Cortez -- and he will catch it, although there are other things he should be thinking about. With an education, her could someday become a marine biologist. Tomás's family want him to stay in school. But Tomás knows he will be more help to them if he leaves school now to become a fisherman. Should he drop out?

The choice is Tomás alone -- a difficult one for a boy just becoming a man. It is only underwater, in a confrontation with the fisherman's greatest prize and worst enemy, that Tomás finds the strength to make his decision.

About this title

About the Author:

Jean Craighead George wrote over one hundred books for children and young adults. Her novel Julie of the Wolves won the Newbery Medal in 1973, and she received a 1960 Newbery Honor for My Side of the Mountain. She continued to write acclaimed picture books that celebrate the natural world. Her other books with Wendell Minor include The Wolves Are Back; Luck; Everglades; Arctic Son; Morning, Noon, and Night; and Galapagos George.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 6 Up-- In the United States of the 21st century, 69% of the adult population is alcoholic, and a chain of government-regulated rehabilitation centers called Soberlife is flourishing. It is the law that minors can commit their parents to a Soberlife facility, as 14-year-old Sam has had to do with his mother in the hope of shielding his younger brother Ollie from her disease. The control which Sam exerts over the lives around him is monumental but has left him with no life of his own. In the end he finds that controlling others is only an illusion, and that Ollie has not been shielded but deeply wounded by his family's deception. The final note of this depressing scenario, however, is a hopeful one. Sam and his mother reveal themselves to each other for the first time and bond together in love and acceptance. The plot has many messages but is not overburdened. The characters of Sam, Ollie, and their mother are vivid, and the sense of foreboding surrounding Ollie's actions carries readers as the point of view shifts with each chapter. A strong story that delivers the chilling realization that the future which Brooks portrays is not very distant. --Nancy Curtin, Port Washington Public Library, N.Y.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0064403084
• ISBN 13: 9780064403085
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192