9 January 2003 FLIGHT OF THE FISHERBIRD by Nora Martin, Bloomsbury, May 2003 (1-58234-814-6)

Where the Night Comes From

Hard from the east,

Pushing daylight into the sea.

From under logs and beach rocks,

Seeping out like a small trickle of water.

Bubbling out of the mouths of fish,

From under leaves.

From fear.

FLIGHT OF THE FISHERBIRD is an edgy historic novel for younger readers--an ideal tale for fifth graders studying American history. Set among the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest in the autumn of 1889, the main character, Clem (Clementine) Nesbitt, is a long-limbed, thirteen year-old girl without formal education who has a knack for writing lists that sound like poetry and who had arrived in the world immediately upon her parent's arrival from Scotland. Living on a relatively sheltered island, she's as handy with her seventeen-foot dory, the Fisherbird, as most kids are today with their mountain bikes.

"As she sat, stunned, a burst of bubbles rose to the surface beside the Fisherbird. She leaned over the side of her boat. Something large and brown was sinking slowly...Clem grabbed the metal hook secured to a long pole that she used for hooking large fish. She jabbed the pole down through the water as far down as she could reach, just snagging the sinking lump. The heavy mass caught hard so that Clem had to brace her legs against the boat to hold onto the end of the pole. Her grip was fragile, and Clem felt her hands grow slick with sweat. She was afraid that at any moment the pole would slide out of her hand, letting whatever it was sink into the grasping currents of deep water. "Clem pulled the pole as hard as she could, hand over hand. She heard herself grunt with muscle strain until she could raise the mass. Slowly it began to surface. More bubbles escaped, and Clem could see whatever she held was wrapped in burlap. "As the wet fabric hit the air,Clem fell to her knees and leaned over the water to grab it. To her shock, through the rip made by the grappling hook, a hand suddenly thrust out and grabbed on to her wrist, pulling her to the edge of the Fisherbird."

That hand is attached to a nearly-dead middle-aged Chinese immigrant, Tong-Ling, who is a victim of the Expulsion Act and of that sweltering atmosphere of extreme anti-Chinese sentiment during the late 1800s that spawned such laws. The irony, in the case of Tong Ling, is that he is being demonized daily as an unwelcome foreigner by "real" Americans who have been in the country less than half the time that he has. (Not to say that life-long Americans of Chinese descent were being treated any better.)

"...Clem saw the wave coming. She knew even before it hit that it would come right over their bow. 'Bail!' she yelled"

This fast-plotted tale opens shortly after the suspicious death of Clem's Uncle Doran's business partner. The two other young characters in the story are Jed, the easy-going, competent young boy, and Sarah, the educated and attractive (prissy and stuck-up, to Clem's way of thinking) daughter of the dead business partner. As she is forced into dealing with Sarah, Clem experiences feelings of incompetence, inferiority, and jealousy that readers will identify with.

Furthermore, FLIGHT OF THE FISHERBIRD provides young readers with an absorbing story about prejudice in US history and will hopefully cause those students to begin connecting that dreadful sentiment of the past with the problems involving intolerance of those who are "different" which are still occurring today.

Richie Partington

http://richiespicks.com

BudNotBuddy@aol.com