A Net to Catch Time - Hardcover

Banks, Sara Harrell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679966730 ISBN 13: 9780679966739

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1996

Synopsis

Cuffy wants to buy a boat someday and become a fisherman like his father. In order to earn money, he'll have to do a good business selling his grandma's deviled crabs. From the Gullah culture of Georgia's beautiful Sea Islands comes A Net to Catch Time, a warm family story that recounts a day in the life of a spirited little boy. Follow Cuffy from FIRST FOWL CROW (5:30 in the morning) when he catches the crabs, to SUN LAY OVER (2:30 in the afternoon) as Cuffy watches his grandmother prepare them, to CANDLE LIGHT TIME (twilight) when the island is quiet and the stars come out. Each dazzling spread shows a new time of day, and each time of day has its own lyrical Gullah name. Scott Cook's pastels create even more warmth and flavor in lively island hues. A glossary of Gullah expressions is included.  

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

A day in the life of young Cuffy, the son of a fisherman on a barrier island off Georgia, set to a Gullah ``calendar,'' which, Banks notes in an afterword, she found ``oddly beautiful.'' Before Cuffy's story starts, there is a glossary, followed by Cook's sweet watercolor rendition of the diurnal calendar, to be read clockwise, showing the lyrical Gullah names for the times of day: ``Sooner Mornin','' or just before dawn, ``First Fowl Crow,'' ``Day Clean,'' when dawn breaks, and on through ``Plat-Eye Prowl,'' when nocturnal animals awaken, and ``Hag-Hollerin' Time,'' after midnight. These terms are then incorporated into the story of Cuffy's day, which includes the crowing of his Dahomey's (grandmother's) ``frizzled ol' bird'' and proceeds through breakfast with his infant sister Bina, his gathering of crabs, and Dahomey's turning them into deviled crabs that Cuffy sells to visitors off the ferry. The boy plans to use the money he takes in--and there is never any doubt that he'll take money in--to buy a boat in order to become a fisherman like his father, Prince. So much is left unsaid that this idyll has at least one unsettling element: There is no mention of Cuffy's mother, whose absence, judging by Bina's age, must be fairly new. The names for the times of day are inherently fascinating, as are the many details of Gullah life and lore, but they lose much of their power and intrigue when shoehorned into this story. (Picture book. 3-8) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

The "net to catch time" of this evocative book's title would be language itself?more specifically, the dialect of the vanishing Gullah culture. A Gullah boy, Cuffy, is fast asleep while his fisherman father casts his nets at "Sooner Mornin'," the first of 14 stages of time in the Gullah day. Cuffy's own day begins at First Fowl Crow, and by First-Whistle Blow he is in the sea shallows hunting for crabs. At Sun Lay Over, "the hottest part of the day," his grandmother is making deviled crabs; at Sun Lay Way Over, Cuffy sells them to the people arriving on the ferry boat from the mainland. Banks (Remember My Name) lyrically incorporates a host of Gullah words and phrases into her sweet, satisfying tale of a loving family. Suggesting a setting of at least several decades ago, Cook's (Nettie Jo's Friends) well-matched illustrations paint an island made hazy with sunlight, softly drawn in pastels flecked with gold. His comfortable-looking characters look as warmhearted as they sound in the text. An author's note supplies historical information about the birth of Gullah culture on Georgia barrier islands in the 1800s. Ages 3-8.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0679966730
• ISBN 13: 9780679966739
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32