The Shore Beyond - Softcover

Joslin, Mary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1561483168 ISBN 13: 9781561483167

Publisher: Good Books, 2013

Synopsis

Can-do girls. Inquisitive girls. Despite their long braids and flowing skirts. Clara and her friend Miriam need to know what happens on the other side of the lake where Clara's father rows every morning. And what goes on down river. And what happens beyond the ocean's breakers. And, finally, how to reach the golden point where gleaming ocean and sun-brushed sky meet. Restless to discover what lies just out-of-reach, Clara finally gets to co-pilot her father's ferry boat to the distant shore. Too hard work and too boring a job, she pronounces when she realizes her first wish. Undeterred by choppy waters and miles of swirling river, Clara is ready for more adventure, drawn by greater unknowns. Even when Miriam finds a new home--and satisfaction--Clara wants to go on, to a place that will make my spirit dance. She turns to an old sailor who has been everywhere. He doesn't teach her how to row, as her father did, or how to make her own boat, as Miriam did. But he tells her what to watch for and how to travel. Clara's urgent longing finds a match in the sailor's mysterious, but knowing, intrigue. Soft paintings throughout are as full of wonder as the text. They capture the pastoral and the world of watery edges, the secure and the vastly unknown beyond.

About this title

About the Author:

Mary Joslin is the author of a number of storybooks for children. She draws her inspiration from the world's heritage of myths and legends to create new tales which seek to explore the wonder and mystery of the world. Mary lives in a village on the Thames. Like Clara in her book The Shore Beyond, she paddles a small boat on the river!

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

When Clara was little, she loved most of all to walk down to the lakeside with her father each morning. She watched as he pushed his heavy rowing-boat our into the calm violet water and set off for his day's work.

In the evening, she waited beside the door of their home and looked for his return under a darkening sky. Every night, when he came home, she asked the same question.

'When can I come with you to the shore beyond? I can barely see if from here.'

'When you are older,' was her father's reply.

Summers came and winters passed. On a bright spring day, Clara at last took her place at the oars and pulled the boat out onto the lake.

'This is such a great adventure,' she cried.

Delighted she gazed at the vastness of the open water and watched the flocks of birds wheeling overhead. With every stroke, she was taking the boat closer to the place she so longed to reach.

Every day, Clara helped her father with the rowing.

'This boat is very heavy when it is laden down with passengers and all their baggage,' she complained.

'It is hard work,' agreed her father. 'We ferry people to and fro as they make their living, and in this way we make ours.'

'I just wish there was more to life than making a living,' the girl grumbled.

Her father turned to look at her. 'There is the good companionship of our passengers,' he said calmly, 'and the loveliness of the place we live in.'

But Clara began to dream.

[continued]

© Good Books, Intercourse, PA 17534

About this edition

• Publisher: Good Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1561483168
• ISBN 13: 9781561483167
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 28