Canoe Days
   Gary Paulsen
   Illustrated by Ruth Wright Paulsen
  1999 Doubleday Book for Young Readers, NY USA
   ISBN: 038532524X


Opening this book is like getting into a canoe, taking up a paddle & gliding out into the beauty of a hidden lake for a day of peace & color. A day when water & sky are one & all the creatures of the neighborhood come down to the lake for a drink.

It's a hot summer's day on the shore of a smooth lake where it's so still you can hear a butterflies swish by.

On this day you take your canoe out onto the water into which you can see sunfish under lily pads swirling bout in the cool green.

As you slowly paddle along the neighbors come down to drink, a doe & her fawn, a mallard hen swims by with her chicks & a fox laps at the cool clear water.

You sit so still in your canoe that a dragonfly lights on the bill of your cap while a heron looks on.

This is a book for nap time reading, the glinting sun on water is perfect for drowsy comfort.

Beautiful, timeless & so very entrancing.

More from Gary Paulsen: Soldier's Heart; the Transall Saga; My Life in Dog Years; Brian's Winter; Sarny; A Life Remembered & more.
(08/13/00)

Rebecca