Fishing on Thin Ice

By Art Coulson and Johanna Tarkela

Jimmy Benge is excited to celebrate his thirteenth birthday with an ice fishing adventure in northern Minnesota. He's even allowed to invite his best friend, Ryan, to spend winter break at the family’s lakeside home. The two boys learn a lot about ice fishing and catch a few panfish but decide to fish for something bigger: Northern pike, the alpha predators of the lake. The trip is fun until one day, while out fishing by themselves, the boys are hit by a sudden, unexpected snowstorm and find themselves fishing on thin ice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
• Release date: Jan 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781666329537

Art Coulson

Art Coulson is an award-winning journalist and was the first executive director of the Wilma Mankiller Foundation in Oklahoma. His first children’s book, The Creator’s Game: A Story of Baaga’adowe/Lacrosse (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2013), told of the deep spiritual and cultural connections of Indigenous American people to the sport of lacrosse. Art still plays traditional Cherokee stickball, an original version of lacrosse, when he is visiting friends and family in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Art lives in Apple Valley, Minnesota, with his wife and two daughters.

Book preview

Wilderness Ridge: Fishing on Thin Ice by Art Coulson, Illustrated by Johanna Tarkela

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Chapter One: Best Birthday Ever

Chapter Two: Watch Your Step!

Chapter Three: Give Me Shelter

Chapter Four: Setting Up Camp

Chapter Five: Predator Becomes Prey

Chapter Six: Hooking a Real Fighter

Chapter Seven: A Sudden Storm

Chapter Eight: Risky Rescue

Chapter Nine: Heroes’ Reward

About the Author

About the Illustrator

Glossary

Talk About It

Write About It

More About Ice Fishing

Explore More

Copyright

Back Cover

Cover

Title Page

Table of Contents

Start of Content

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back cover

CHAPTER ONE

Best Birthday Ever

Where is he? I asked, peering out the window. It was the night before winter break, and I couldn’t wait for my best friend, Ryan, to arrive.

Winter break was the absolute best time of the year in northern Minnesota. The week was filled with all my favorite activities: snowmobiling, skiing, and ice fishing.

And the fact that it usually fell right around my birthday didn’t hurt.

This year, I was turning the big one-three— I’d finally be a teenager! Uncle Kenny and Aunt Sammi had a special week planned for me. As part of the celebration, Ryan’s parents had agreed to let him spend most of the week with me fishing out on our lake.

I always thought of it as our lake, but really we shared Mudcat Lake with lots of other people. There were close to thirty homes and cabins spread out around the perimeter.

Aunt Sammi, Uncle Kenny, and I lived in a cabin on the east side of the lake. Though we were only about a fifteen-minute drive from my school and Uncle Kenny’s clinic in Bemidji, it felt remote. We were surrounded by forests, lakes, and streams. If you asked me, it was the most beautiful place on Earth.

I’m sure Ryan will be here soon, Jimmy, Aunt Sammi replied from the kitchen. She was working on my favorite dinner—fried walleye sandwiches and sweet potato fries.

I had lived with my aunt and uncle since I was