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And now for your MMGM Review
Fish--nicknamed for his incredible swimming abilities--is a twelve-year-old boy from a poor farming family. After taking a job as a courier for his uncle, Fish is waylaid by pirates, who steal the package he's carrying. He soon learns that it's the key to locating the Chain of Chuacar, a legendary treasure. As he works to earn the trust of Cobb, the fortune-hunting captain of the Scurvy Mistress, Fish learns of a mutiny headed by a nasty pirate called Scab. With time running out to find the Chain, Fish and some fellow shipmates still loyal to Cobb must thwart Scab's dastardly plan.
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First Line: The rain had been falling heavily for weeks.
One Great Line: "The line dragged him through a multicolored underwater world full of purple, fernlike, waving plants, giant yellow rocks covered with small grooves and channels, fish of all shapes and colors and sizes." (154)
What Others Are Saying: "Mone seamlessly integrates factual information into his tale of friendship, loyalty, and exploration. As Fish travels from farm to city to ship, he discovers his place in the world, and his moral compass helps to ground and direct the story." -School Library Journal
"Chock full of real historic curiosities about pirates, sly humor for grownups, excellent action scenes and general quantities of swash and buckle, Fish is a great, self-contained addition to the canon of fun pirate fiction. Perfect for young readers, even better for reading aloud at bed-time, thanks to the plentiful cliff-hangers." -Cory Doctorow
Kid Review: "I liked Fish and how he felt so good swimming in the water and that it made him different than his family but ended up being what saved his family. I also really liked the big quiet Pirate, Moravius. I never knew pirates were kind of like a family." -Dylan, age 7
What I Thought: This adventure gets off to a fast start and doesn't slow, ever. Each chapter ends in a cliffhanger that leaves readers and listeners begging for more. A great read-aloud, characters jump off the page as Mone describes unique quirks and physical characteristics. The mucky wet and smelly pirates permeate each page so vividly your nose crinkles as if you're standing on the slippery deck.
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Who: Gregory Mone comes from an Irish-American family of swimmers and storytellers. There were no pirates in the family, but some details in Fish were borrowed from family history. Maurice "Fish" Reidy was named for Gregory's grandfather, and though the real Maurice wasn't much of a swimmer, he did cross the ocean on a boat when he immigrated to the United States from Ireland. Gregory's grandmother Brigid was forced to leave her family farm when their horse, Shamrock, died. She, too, came to America and, like Fish, had to send money back home to support her family.
