"Mommy, what's a fish?" Are we headed to a world in which future generations will only know fish from pictures on the internet? No more seafood restaurants and tunafish subs? Mark Kurlansky has turned his inquisitive mind to fish, its history, economics, politics and technology.
In 1994 the Canadian government found that the fish had disappeared from the exalted Grand Banks. They made the shocking decision to ban fishing in these hallowed grounds sending 30,000 fishermen out of work. Today, in 2011, the fish have not returned to the Grand Banks.
So, why should that matter to us? We have an enormous ocean out there. Isn't it full of fish we can move on to? Here is the picture of the world of fishing with all its facets. Laid out in highly appealing and engaging font and voice, and including a graphic novel told in eleven segments as you travel along, in a style even the most reluctant reader will appreciate and respond to, are the insights into where fish live and how long fish live and how important it is to have many, many species of fish in our oceans.
Fish live on the continental shelf where the sunlight creates the plankton they eat. That means when we deplete those two hundred mile limit areas, we've done them in.... all of them. If you follow the food web all the way to the end, you will find you are looking at yourself in the mirror. Bye bye fish means bye bye us. What happened along the way? How did we get to this place? What can we do to change the situation, to make a difference with our own choices and our own practices?
There are suggested solutions that kids can practice to empower their generation to turn things around. It all starts in the marketplace. Is that tuna you're eating caught by a sustainable fishery? That's the all-important question.
When Kurlansky writes, he explores all the angles of an issue with his widely ranging mind and here he has brought in the factors of pollution, global warming, technology, and history. This is a trumpet blare of a call to us all. It's fun to read. It's highly informative. It gives us tools we can all use to be part of an important solution. Should be required reading for every family. A very important book for our times.
208 pages 978-0761185000 Ages 9 and up
Keywords: fish, natural resources, fishing, global warming, history, technology, 9 year old, 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old, 13 year old, narrative nonfiction
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
