My grandpa and the sea

36 Pages·2014·5.783 MB·English

by  Orr, Katherine

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A 100 Children’s Books for Reading and Sharing My Grandpa
by the New York Public Library Selection
A Notable Children’s Trade Book in the
Field of Language Arts by the
National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
and the Sea
“This gentle tale teaches an important ecological
lesson with considerable grace. . . . A poetic text
embodies Lila’s love for her Grandpa and gives the M
Y
book an endearing tenderness.” —Booklist G
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“Orr illustrates her sympathetic portrait of this wise,
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gentle. . . man with nicely composed paintings in the A
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brilliant hues of the Caribbean.” —Kirkus Reviews N
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“Told with an air of authenticity and appreciation by E

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a woman who has firsthand knowledge of Caribbean E
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fisheries. [Orr’s] watercolor drawings glow with the
lovely shades . . . so special to the islands.”
—School Library Journal
“Using gentle, poetic language and rich imagery, Lila
shares with readers the many important ‘things about
the heart’ that Grandpa has taught her. . . . Perfectly
synchronized with the poignant text, [Orr’s] primi-
tive, brilliantly hued pictures depict the many moods
of the sea and the tropics.” —Publishers Weekly
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A Katherine Orr
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My Grandpa and the Sea
Katherine Orr
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CAROLRHODA BOOKS MINNEAPOLIS (cid:129) NEW YORK
Carolrhoda Books
A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.
241 First Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.
Website address: www.lernerbooks.com
Copyright © 1990 by Katherine Orr
All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No
partof this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner
Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief
quotations in an acknowledged r eview.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Orr, Katherine Shelley.
My grandpa and the sea/by Katherine Orr.
p. cm.
Summary: When Grandpa, a traditional fisherman, is forced from his
livelihood because increasingly efficient technology has depleted
his island’s supply of fish, he creates an ecologically sound
solution by starting a seamoss farm.
ISBN-13: 978–0–87614–525–8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0–87614–525–X (pbk. : alk. paper)
[1. Fishers—Fiction. 2. Wildlife conservation—Fiction.
3. Marine ecology—Fiction. 4. Grandfathers—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.0743My 1990
[E]—dc20 89-23876
Manufactured in the United States of America
12/31/11
eISBN: 978-1-58013-975-5
To Chris
Carl
Kristina
and to all our friends in St. Lucia
with special thanks to Kaf
My Grandpa was a fisherman on the
island of St. Lucia. He had never been
to school, but he was very wise. He could read the
sea and sky like most of us read books. He showed
me how to search the clouds for rain and taught
me how sea birds can guide us to fish. But most
of all, he taught me things about the heart that
I will never forget.

When the weather was fine, Grandpa fished six
days a week. In winter he brought home dolphin
fish and kingfish that were fat and sleek, and
almost as big as me. In summer he cast his nets
for flying fish, which skimmed across the waves
like schools of giant silver dragonflies. On Sundays,
while Grammy and I were at church, Grandpa
worked on his fishing boat, Fancy Lady.

Fancy Lady was Grandpa’s pride and joy. She was
carved from the trunk of a giant tree that grew high
in the mountains—a real dugout canoe of the kind
St. Lucian fishermen used before the days of out-
board engines. Grandpa caulked her planks when
they began to leak and rolled her high each day to
dry, so her hull would not rot. Once each year he
painted her up and down with pots of thick bright
colors until she gleamed in the sun.