Fishbone's Song

Starred review from September 12, 2016
Paulsen (This Side of Wild) again mines themes of resourcefulness and respect for nature in this introspective story of a boy raised in the woods by an elderly hermit. The unnamed young narrator's life is built on uncertainty: he doesn't know when or where he was born, or how he came to live with Fishbone. What he does know is the power of the man's "story-songs," which include poignant flashbacks to serving in the Korean War, his baby sister's death from cholera, and two lost chances at "for sure and true love." Fishbone's stories also serve as character-building lessons, emphasizing the need to live off the land yet leave "No tracks, not a wrinkle to show you were there. No waste. No want. No bother to nobody or no thing." Gradually, the boy learns to search beyond the surface of both nature and Fishbone's anecdotes to find at the center "a seed" that "meant more than the story." His observation that Fishbone "never seemed to waste a word or a thought" aptly describes Paulsen's feat with this compact and eloquent novel. Ages 10âup.

July 15, 2016
A white boy narrates his upbringing by a solitary old white man in a tiny cabin in the woods.The unnamed narrator, a boy of "thirteen...or fourteen, maybe fifteen," has lived all his remembered life by Caddo Creek with an old man named Fishbone. In the evenings, Fishbone sips moonshine and tells the boy stories: of how the boy as a baby came to live with him (three different versions) and of Fishbone's own life--how he got his name, women and love, fast cars and running moonshine, and getting shot in Korea during the war. Gradually the boy comes to understand, as he spends his days closely observing the natural world and hunting alone in the forest, that Fishbone's stories are a map to a way of thinking and living. Paulsen's writing is lyrical and his story allegorical in its exploration of how a young person growing up in virtual isolation who is given time and space can develop into the person he needs to be. As such, it's a pointed and necessary antidote to today's plugged-in, nature-deprived childhood. Where it skews, however, is in its easy romanticizing of running moonshine, drinking and driving, lack of formal education, and an alternate, unsubstantiated version of the Whiskey Rebellion. A beautifully written elegy to coming of age in bygone days that, unfortunately, oversimplifies complex issues. (Historical fiction. 12-15)

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September 1, 2016

Gr 5 Up-Paulsen's latest tells the story of an orphan living with an elderly veteran of the Korean War who teaches him the old songs, the art of the good hunt, and life lessons, told through tales fueled by moonshine-some of which are true. What is never understood, even by the narrator, is how the boy ended up in Fishbone's care. Sometimes his story has biblical connotations, with the baby having floated to the old man in a chest through the bulrushes; sometimes he is the witches' familiar arriving on a witching stump; and sometimes it is a brutal tale of an unwanted illegitimate distant relative's child being handed from one unloving relation to the next until finally he came to stop in the isolated cabin. Either way, the boy shows up with only a couple months of schooling, supplemented by books from the school librarian that arrive with the man who brings the pension check. The unnamed protagonist finds his way, with Fishbone's guidance, to the simple purity of a life where food comes mainly from what you kill for yourself, and self-actualization is realized in that process. Paulsen's tale is reminiscent of Alice Hoffman's "Green Angel" trilogy and Ernest Hemingway's The Nick Adams Stories, and there is a dreamlike quality to the spare writing. Readers discover the protagonist largely through his relationship with nature. Paulsen himself was a lonely and neglected child who at times had to survive through his hunting skills (My Life in Dog Days), and he describes the methods of clean hunting and killing in detail. His hero speaks in a backwoods vernacular, with phrases, single words, and broken sentences that often read like poetry. The forest environment is crafted like a third character, transporting readers into the natural world. VERDICT Fans of Paulsen and those who love woodsy hunting stories will welcome this latest short novel from the three-time Newbery Honor author.-Jane Barrer, United Nations International School, New York City

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2016
Grades 5-8 Raised in the backwoods by an old man named Fishbone, a boy in his early teens reflects on what he has learned from his much-admired mentor. Self-sufficient and taciturn, Fishbone likes to hearken back to his own youth (fast cars, old friends, a Korean War wound) when the spiritor the moonshinemoves him. With the exception of a few more basic lessons ( pee off the porch on the downwind side ), he encourages the boy to learn for himself while developing his awareness of the natural world: Hunting is watching. Watching to know. Watching to learn to see and know and learn. A way to get food, but more, more than that a way to learn, to know. A way to be. This sort of repetition of phrases is poetic and, at times, almost hypnotic. Though the jacket illustration, which prominently features a dog, is misleading, and the story's focus on Fishbone may limit the book's appeal for young readers, the story is written with its own brand of eloquence and should appeal to a certain audience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)