"The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick

Did I pick this up off the shelf at the library in the Junior Fiction section solely because the title is a nod to Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea?  Yes, yes, I did.  And then I read the whole thing in one sitting and enjoyed myself thoroughly!

While this does eventually retell Hemingway's story in a way, the first half of the book is totally different. Twelve-year-old Skiff's mother died recently, and his father is sunk deep into depression because of that.  Skiff tries to figure out a way to rouse his father out of his apathy, and he thinks maybe raising his father's sunken fishing boat will do the trick.  With the help of several old men, the young man does raise the boat and fix a hole in its bottom.

The boat needs a new engine, though, so Skiff sets about trapping lobster to earn the money that will cost.  But that doesn't work out the way he expects, so he decides to go out and catch himself a bluefin tuna, the biggest fish in the waters off Maine.  And that's when he begins his own one-on-one battle with a fish that closely parallels Hemingway's masterpiece... but with a much different ending.  I had tears in my eyes by the end of this book, it was so good.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some juvenile humor and a youngster in danger.