I thought that this was a good book. The title along with the illustration on the cover of the book gives a very good idea of what the book is about. This is a great talking point for teachers who are using this book to teach their students how to make predictions. This story gives a great idea of what the 19th century was like. I really liked all of the descriptive details inside of the book as well. One of the sentences in the book is "Asa turned around and saw the angriest black clouds he had ever seen". Those are the types of details that teachers want their students to pay attention to when reading. In my opinion, there were many lessons in this story. One of my favorite lessons is about the importance of hard work and learning from those who came before us. The young boy in the story was very observant during his journey with his father. He also took in everything that his father tried to teach him about leading the mules and surviving during their journey. In the end, he was able to use what he learned to save his father's life. ( )

Asa's father is a canal boat captain, a man who moves goods and cargo on a barge pulled by mules. In this gentle story, nine-year-old Asa gets to come along for the first time because his father's mule driver has quit. Their trip is a learning experience for Asa, who helps care for the mules and steers them along the path, visiting with familiar faces along the way. Adventure comes their way in the form of a nasty storm that causes the mules to bolt from a lightning strike; then the towline breaks, and Asa's father disappears into the canal. All ends well, however, and both Asa and the reader have learned a lot about this little byway of history. A foreword explains that canals were the highways of the nineteenth century, on which barges carried heavier loads faster than horse-drawn wagons over land. Information on what canal boats looked like and how locks functioned is smoothly worked into the story, which is skillfully illustrated with careful, ambitious pen-and-wash drawings that use interesting perspectives to tell this story.
TCI LESSON 4: A TRAIN TOUR OF THE NORTHEAST