Fishing for Chickens: Short Stories about Rural Youth - Hardcover

The editor, Jim Heynen, grew up on a farm in northwest Iowa. He is the author of the short story collection The One-Room Schoolhouse and the young adult novel Cosmos Coyote and William the Nice, among other titles. Heynen lives in St. Paul and teaches writing at St. Olaf's College, Northfield, Minnesota.

Gr 7 Up-A collection of stories that captures the richness of a varied American landscape. Some settings, such as a bitterly cold New England woods, a southern farm, and a ranch, are predictable and familiar; others carry readers to unexpected destinations and new worlds of experience: the Alaskan coastline, a Hawaiian pineapple cannery, and an Indian reservation. Each protagonist is a young person learning lessons of life particular to the country. "You gotta' have guts, skill, and smarts livin' in the country," Meg's father tells her in Nancy Brown's "Burn Pile." What binds the stories together is the strong connection the main characters have with the natural world. Given the playful, perhaps misleading, title, readers may be surprised that, with few exceptions, the stories are somber, sometimes violent, reflecting real experiences of young people. The cover illustration, however, foreshadows serious themes, with a brightly colored rooster about to chomp down on a fishing hook. Some authors are well known-Wallace Stegner ("The Colt") and Alice Walker ("The Flowers"). Most, however, are new, representing many different ethnic and racial groups: Tlingit, Mexican, Chicano, Japanese-American, African American. Heynen includes two of his own masterful stories. "What Happened During the Ice Storm" is an image-rich, two-page story about boys who feel unexpected pity for helpless pheasants and are moved to rescue rather than torment or hurt them. This is an important collection of previously published short stories brought together to develop a theme from diverse points of view. It breaks many of the stereotypes about what it means to grow up in rural America. Without exception, the stories are strong.

Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI

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