A Million Fish...More or Less - Hardcover

McKissack, Patricia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 067980692X ISBN 13: 9780679806929

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2016

Synopsis

Newbery honor author Patricia C. McKissack’s original yarn of the Louisiana bayou is "told with verve and sly wit." (Publishers Weekly, Starred review)
 
Hugh Thomas knows that the Bayou Clapateaux is a mighty peculiar place. Why, back in 1903, Papa-Daddy and Elder Abbajon caught a turkey that weighed 500 pounds…more or less. 500 pounds?! Hugh Thomas isn’t so sure about that, until he’s left alone on the bayou with only his fishing pole for company. Soon he catches three fish, and then…a million more! But after meeting up with raccoon bandits, thieving crows, and a hungry cat named Chantilly, Hugh Thomas returns home with just enough fish for breakfast…and a fantastic story, of course!

About this title

About the Author

Patricia C. McKissack is the author of over twenty children's books, including The Dark Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural, which was a Newbery Honor book and a Coretta Scott King Award winner, and the All I’ll Ever Want Christmas Doll. She has also received the Coretta Scott King Award for A Long Hard Journey: The Story of Pullman Porter and Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters. Patricia currently lives in St. Louis.

From the Back Cover

ll color. In an original yarn of the Louisiana bayou, McKissack honors the tradition of bragging about the one that got away. Hugh Thomas hears that strange things happen on the Bayou Clapateaux, but he's skeptical--until he invents a fish story of his own. "McKissack understands the elements of a good story, and includes just enough detail to make it work. Uninhibited splashes of vivid colors fill the pages and elicit a joyous emotional response to the dynamic human figures. A radiant debut for a talented illustrator."--(starred) School Library Journal.  

From the Inside Flap

Illus. in full color. In an original yarn of the Louisiana bayou, McKissack honors the tradition of bragging about the one that got away. Hugh Thomas hears that strange things happen on the Bayou Clapateaux, but he's skeptical--until he invents a fish story of his own. "McKissack understands the elements of a good story, and includes just enough detail to make it work. Uninhibited splashes of vivid colors fill the pages and elicit a joyous emotional response to the dynamic human figures. A radiant debut for a talented illustrator."--(starred) School Library Journal.  

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 2-- When a black youngster, Hugh Thomas, goes fishing one morning, Papa-Daddy and Elder Abbajon row up like specters out of the mist. They delight and amaze the boy with tall tales, told in the vernacular, of giant turkeys and snakes, mysterious lamps, and strange happenings on the bayou. When they leave, Hugh Thomas embarks on an outlandish adventure of his own. He catches a million fish (more or less), divides his catch with a grand-pere alligator, again with a pack of pirate raccoons, crows, and finally some trickster cats. When he finally reaches Papa-Daddy and the Elder's houseboat, he has only three fish left, and a tale that surpasses theirs. McKissack understands the elements of good story, and includes just enough detail to make it work. Hugh Thomas accepts fantastic animals with ``an uncertain spirit,'' but tackles the problems they present to him, taking only a moment to wonder at their bizarre emergence from the swamp. He lives in an imaginative world that combines exotic realities of the bayou and slips almost imperceptibly into a fantasy that will bemuse readers as much as it does the boy. The vital, action-filled paintings seem naive at first glance. However, viewers will quickly see that each seemingly careless brush stroke works toward a harmoniously integrated whole. Uninhibited splashes of vivid colors highlight forms, fill the pages, and elicit a joyous emotional response to the dynamic human figures. A radiant debut for a talented illustrator. --Ruth Semrau, Lovejoy School, Allen, TX
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Down in Louisiana, young Hugh Thomas has heard many a tale of the extraordinary goings-on in the Bayou Clapateaux--"a mighty peculiar place." Given the stories of 500-pound turkeys, lamps that never burn out and snakes that take to their legs and run, it is only natural that Hugh, catching three small fish, should land "a million more! Big ones, little ones, all sizes." Told with verve and a sly wit, this exuberant Bayou tale admirably captures the captivating regional cadences and comedy of the intrepid fisher boy's adventures. Each unlikely event is topped by the next, and despite the snapping 'gators and sneaky raccoons, Hugh Thomas lives to tell his tale with glee. Similarly ebullient and evocative is the Gauguinesque artwork; Schutzer's rainbow palette of thickly daubed paint both portrays and extends the absurdity and vivacious spirit behind the storytelling. This splendid collaboration is a perfect blend of two distinct styles--text and art trying to outdo each other, it seems, with joyous results. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Out fishing on the Bayou Clapateaux, young Hugh Thomas listens with delight when Papa-Daddy and Elder Abbajonto happen by to tell him a tall tale concerning a 500-pound turkey, a Spanish conquistador's lantern that's still burning, and ``the longest, meanest cottonmouth I ever did see.'' After they leave, Hugh Thomas catches just three small fish--and then imagines an even taller tale to tell the men: he catches a million fish, but the crocodiles demand half, and he's able to keep only half of the remainder by winning a jumprope contest with some piratical raccoons on his way home. Most of the rest disappear while he's talking to his friend Miss Challie Pearl: Did her cat get them? Still, he has those first three fish, just enough for supper. Though it doesn't have quite the enchantment of the author's Flossie and the Fox (1986), this lively, well-cadenced tale makes a good African-American counterpart to Seuss's classic And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. In her picture book debut, Schutzer provides freely rendered oil paintings with bold strokes of vibrant color that are especially effective at a distance--fine for groups. (Picture book. 5-10) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 067980692X
• ISBN 13: 9780679806929
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 32