Crossing the Pressure Line by Laura Anne Bird
What's It About?
“Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.”Young Clare Burch was doing some fishing of her own, in debut author Laura Anne Bird’s delightful and meaning-laden middle-grade novel Crossing the Pressure Line. And while part of her quest was in fact the rare musky fish in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, that quote, from Henry David Thoreau, couldn’t be truer for her.
Twelve-year-old Clare was seeking answers to that unfortunate circumstance of a young child trying to cope with the loss of a dear one, in this case her grandfather Anthony. And it’s more than just her self-inflicted feelings of guilt that if she reacted faster he could have been saved. She is at the age where understanding death — and associated loss — is a difficult lesson and emotion. It is also that awkward time of trying to feel comfortable in her own skin.
“Do you remember your own third- to sixth-grade years?” asks the author. “Close your eyes, think back, and you’ll recall the vivid contrasts inherent in being a tween, when countless developmental milestones collide like furious little atoms.”
“Middle-grade fiction gets right to the heart of this tender, pivotal time, when kids are figuring out who, what, and how they want to be in the world. The themes are universal and eternal, such as what it means to belong, why it’s crucial to speak up, and how to become our own best cheerleaders.”
A LAKESHORE VISIT TO HONOR A FINAL WISH
With the loss of Grandpa Anthony, Clare wonders about superficial things like who will teach her to fish, who will surprise her with candy. But more importantly, she loses a key comfort and security blanket, someone whose routine and guiding presence she could count on.
In Anthony’s will, he requests that his ashes be scattered in the lake at Alwyn, near the cabin he cherished in northern Wisconsin – and he wants his family, which lives near Chicago, to spend a full summer together in the woodlands. So Clare, her mother Helen and Grandma Lulu set out to fulfill his wishes. They will soon learn that it’s more than “the fish they are after.”
Clare sets several goals for the summer, and while Helen and Lulu don’t, somehow Anthony understood that having them together in the cabin and getting to reassess their lives from a fresh vantage point will prove invaluable to all of them.
LEARNING TO BE PRESENT IN THE MOMENT
Bird offers much for middle-grade readers: a captivating story, a brush with the beauties of nature, non-traditional families and diverse characters, and some enchanting language: “The if-onlys filled Clare’s brain like useless pebbles.”
Every time Grandpa Anthony and Clare drove up north, he would always make reference to reaching Highway Eight, where the region officially begins. He called it the “pressure line. “Feel it, Clare. Breathe it in! The air’s got more oxygen now! Forget about your worries. Just be present right here, right now!”
It was a special place for Anthony. And a special place, he realized, where his family could learn a lot about themselves and grow. More than just a fish tale!
Says Bird, “When I was that age, I wanted to make my own choices, but I still yearned for the comfort of my parents and family. I wanted to be ‘different’ and ‘unique,’ but never at the expense of being rejected by my peer group. Everything felt like a push and pull — independence, affection, security, adventure — but that’s because it was. It was akin to standing on the fulcrum of a seesaw and never, ever getting it to balance.”
For more on Crossing the Pressure Line, check out our Q&A with the author here.
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