Catching a Storyfish [Hardcover]

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year

This lyrical middle-grade novel-in-verse celebrates the power of story and of finding one’s individual voice.

Keet knows the only good thing about moving away from her Alabama home is that she'll live near her beloved grandfather. When Keet starts school, it's even worse than she expected, as the kids tease her about her southern accent. Now Keet, who can talk the whiskers off a catfish, doesn't want to open her mouth. While fishing with her grandfather, she learns the art of listening and gradually, she makes her first new friend. But just as she's beginning to settle in, her grandfather has a stroke, and even though he's still nearby, he suddenly feels ever-so-far-away. Keet is determined to reel him back to her by telling him stories; in the process she finds her voice and her grandfather again.* Keet, a girl from Alabama, loves language and storytelling, but her family's move to Illinois makes her feel silenced.... Harrington perfectly captures her character's growth by using all the tools poetry provides: artfully chosen words, thought-provoking metaphors, appropriate rhythm and pacing, and changing points of view.... Harrington also includes various poetic forms and a postscript offering additional information about each of them: an unusual addition for a title of this format.... Keet's is a simple and familiar-feeling story, but one that is understated, fully realized, deftly written, and utterly absorbing. -School Library Journal,starred review

* Poet and storyteller Harrington offers a verse novel about a girl named Katharen, nicknamed Keet... When Keet's family moves from Alabama... she silences her storytelling voice. She slowly befriends Allegra, a Spanish-speaking girl who lives in the neighborhood, with whom she bonds after telling Allegra where her cockatoo escaped.... A gentle-spirited book about a black girl who almost gives up her gift but for love anlÓ"