Catching Spring

This short Orca Young Reader with simple vocabulary offers a life-affirming glimpse into life and childhood on a reserve. It’s 1957 and Bobby is a ten-year-old Aboriginal boy living with his mother and nine siblings on the Tsartlip Reserve near Brentwood Bay on southern Vancouver Island. His dad is seldom around and money is tight. However, his mother and the children knit sweaters to sell in Victoria and Bobby also proudly works at Dan’s Marina on Saturday mornings to help with grocery money. Fishing is Bobby’s favourite thing in the world. When the Marina Kids’ Fishing Derby is announced, he yearns for the $5 entry fee, a boat to fish with and time off from his Saturday job to join in the contest. If Grandpa were not in the Nanaimo Indian Hospital, he would have made sure Bobby could enter the Derby but now Bobby feels there’s no hope. Ultimately, the first prize blue bicycle is awarded to him thanks to his hard work, dedication to his job, some luck and the kindness of his uncle and his boss.