As a city kid I always kind of envied the kids in books who lived in small towns and could just go camping and fishing when their chores were finished - kind of like this one. Twelve-year old Sawyer Brown's father was killed in Vietnam and he has to step up and help his mother run the family catfish farm. But when she loses her wedding ring and subsequently becomes ill, Sawyer sets out to find it thinking it will make her well again. Together with his best friend "Nose," his hippie cousin Truman (who brings an accordian with him), and his little sister "Virus" (Elvira) who sneaks into their boat, they look for Ol' One Eye, "the biggest, oldest, smartest, and meanest durn cat that ever swum the Yazoo." Following a map they get from old Moses (Nose's grandfather), they have an adventure paddling around the Mississippi swamps and bayous looking for the giant catfish, which might just be a legend... or maybe just one of Moses' tall tales.

Although the book was a little weak on how Sawyer decided Ol' One Eye had the ring, it's a fun read as the kids face backwoods poachers and find flooded mansions and old paddle boats forgotten and rotting in the swamp. The Southern dialect lends atmosphere to the Mississippi setting and it's a lot like some of the books I enjoyed so much as a kid where kids roam a lot freer than nowadays. (And it reminded me a lot of one of those forgotten favorites from my childhood: It Started With Old Man Bean by David Kherdian.) ( )

As a city kid I always kind of envied the kids in books who lived in small towns and could just go camping and fishing when their chores were finished - kind of like this one. Twelve-year old Sawyer Brown's father was killed in Vietnam and he has to step up and help his mother run the family catfish farm. But when she loses her wedding ring and subsequently becomes ill, Sawyer sets out to find it thinking it will make her well again. Together with his best friend "Nose," his hippie cousin Truman (who brings an accordian with him), and his little sister "Virus" (Elvira) who sneaks into their boat, they look for Ol' One Eye, "the biggest, oldest, smartest, and meanest durn cat that ever swum the Yazoo." Following a map they get from old Moses (Nose's grandfather), they have an adventure paddling around the Mississippi swamps and bayous looking for the giant catfish, which might just be a legend... or maybe just one of Moses' tall tales.

Although the book was a little weak on how Sawyer decided Ol' One Eye had the ring, it's a fun read as the kids face backwoods poachers and find flooded mansions and old paddle boats forgotten and rotting in the swamp. The Southern dialect lends atmosphere to the Mississippi setting and it's a lot like some of the books I enjoyed so much as a kid where kids roam a lot freer than nowadays. (And it reminded me a lot of one of those forgotten favorites from my childhood: It Started With Old Man Bean by David Kherdian.) ( )

As a city kid I always kind of envied the kids in books who lived in small towns and could just go camping and fishing when their chores were finished - kind of like this one. Twelve-year old Sawyer Brown's father was killed in Vietnam and he has to step up and help his mother run the family catfish farm. But when she loses her wedding ring and subsequently becomes ill, Sawyer sets out to find it thinking it will make her well again. Together with his best friend "Nose," his hippie cousin Truman (who brings an accordian with him), and his little sister "Virus" (Elvira) who sneaks into their boat, they look for Ol' One Eye, "the biggest, oldest, smartest, and meanest durn cat that ever swum the Yazoo." Following a map they get from old Moses (Nose's grandfather), they have an adventure paddling around the Mississippi swamps and bayous looking for the giant catfish, which might just be a legend... or maybe just one of Moses' tall tales.

Although the book was a little weak on how Sawyer decided Ol' One Eye had the ring, it's a fun read as the kids face backwoods poachers and find flooded mansions and old paddle boats forgotten and rotting in the swamp. The Southern dialect lends atmosphere to the Mississippi setting and it's a lot like some of the books I enjoyed so much as a kid where kids roam a lot freer than nowadays. (And it reminded me a lot of one of those forgotten favorites from my childhood: It Started With Old Man Bean by David Kherdian.) ( )