One Frozen Lake by Deborah Jo Larson (review)

Library shelves may creak and strain under the weight of football and basketball books, and groan and sag under stress from baseball books, but how much space is allotted to ice fishing? Larson gives fans of this literarily underrated activity their due in this affectionate and stylish tribute, which follows the bone-chilling expeditions of a young boy and his grandfather to entice a fish—any fish—up through the frozen crust: “One frozen lake./Two fishing friends./Three bundles packed with/Line, lures, and snacks./Four frosty inches./Five hours pass./Not one fish.” The author wisely adapts the counting-book format, relying on the number scheme only to establish a rhythm to her text and serve as a reminder to her audience that the fish run on their own time, not the fishermen’s. Several trips to the lake, mugs of hot chocolate, hands of (what else?) Go Fish, and a variety of lures later, the boy gets a bite and hauls up a ten-inch “keeper.” Remorse overcomes ambition, however, and the fish is dropped down the hole to elude fishermen another day. Johnson and Fancher’s mixed-media artwork is a delight, capturing the simultaneous action above and below the ice-and-water line. Human characters are depicted with cozy realism, while their ice huts boast whimsical walls of flannel-shirt plaids and yellowed newspaper articles; fish that could have been clipped from naturalists’ and anglers’ manuals of bygone days glide regally beneath the surface. Kids from balmier climes who are unlikely to experience ice fishing themselves may nonetheless agree that winter may have more to offer than Santa’s visit.