This month, I decided to review a book about a special vacation trip, Salmon Survivor by Christian A. Shane. Shane is an award-winning author featured in Boater Magazine, PA Angler, PA Outdoor News, Kype Magazine, The Drake, Fly Culture, and Montana Fly Fishing Magazine.

He is a teacher with over twenty-five years of experience teaching young people in grades two through seven. He is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native and lives in the Pittsburgh area with his wife, children, and a menagerie of well-loved pets. This book is rated suitable for ages twelve and up.

Salmon Survivor is the fictious story of twelve-year-old Jack Cooper and his Alaskan fly-fishing adventure. Jack and his dad, John “Redds” Cooper, were close buddies and fishing partners. Redds was an outdoor writer for a sporting magazine, an avid fly fisherman, outdoorsman, and conservationist. Redds drowns while fishing in a local creek near their Pennsylvania home. At the time of his death, he was working on an Alaska fishing guidebook. He planned to take his family to the Kenai River area in Alaska where he grew up to finish the book and reconnect with his father, “Fly Bob.”

After Redds’ parents divorced, Redds lived with his mom in Pennsylvania and spent summers in Alaska with his dad. Redds never talked about what happened between him and his dad, but Jack had been looking forward to meeting his grandfather the enigmatic fishing guide. Now without his dad, Jack has no desire to meet Fly Bob or ever set foot in Alaska. He resists when his mom insists they take the trip and finish Redds’ fishing guide.

Jack wants to hate Fly Bob for not coming to Redds’ funeral, but there is something about Fly Bob that makes Jack feel closer to his dad.

Fly Bob knows so many things about Redds as a child and speaks of him with such love. He tells Jack how Redds  got his nickname and the one thing Redds was never able to accomplish, the Salmon Slam – catching all five varieties of salmon in one summer. When Fly Bob suggests Jack try for the Salmon Slam in honor of his dad, they begin to bond, and Jack takes a first step toward healing. Can he catch all five? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Many things impress me about this book. I learned about fly-fishing, Alaska, the importance of respecting our environment and the creatures inhabiting it, and the gift of family in all its imperfectness. At the end of the book, Shane includes “Fly Recipes” to allow you to tie your own flies for fly-fishing.”  He also includes information about how readers can protect, conserve, and enhance salmon and trout fisheries.

I appreciate the way Shane deals with Jack’s grief. I was twelve when my dad (who was also an avid fisherman) was diagnosed with terminal cancer. As I was reading, I remembered some of our last fishing trips together. He died a few months after I turned thirteen.

Through Jack, I remembered my feelings of loss, anger, and confusion. I remembered how life changed and how much I fought against a new normal. Then, I remembered the grace of letting go and receiving the many blessings my father gifted to me… his love for nature, his work ethic, and moral compass. Passages made me tear up, but in a good way because they reminded me that like Jack I was also loved by an exceptional human being, my dad.

For more information about Christian A. Shane, visit his website at www.christianshaneauthor.com