A Full Hand [Hardcover]

Thomas F. Yezerski (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

A boy's initiation into old-time canal transport

Asa doesn't know what to expect when his mother tells him it's time he made his first full hand. After all, he's only nine years old. But his father needs some help. He carries coal on his boat along the canal all the way across New Jersey, and he needs Asa to drive the two mules who pull the boat. While leading the mules along their route, Asa learns about loading at the coal chutes and the mechanisms of locks, aqueducts, and inclined planes. Finally, when a violent storm threatens the mission, Asa finds out what it really means to make a full hand.

Set against a backdrop of luminous illustrations, fascinating information about old-time canal freighting is seamlessly woven into this warm and exciting father-and-son story.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Inspired by abandoned stretches of Pennsylvania's Morris Canal, a 19th-century waterway used primarily to transport coal to New York and New Jersey, A Full Hand by Thomas F. Yezerski follows young Asa as he leads his father's boat down the canal for the first time, and simultaneously introduces readers to a forgotten way of life. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

PreS-Gr. 2. Asa's father is a canal boat captain, a man who moves goods and cargo on a barge pulled by mules. In this gentle story, nine-year-old Asa gets to come along for the first time because his father's mule driver has quit. Their trip is a learning experience for Asa, who helps care for the mules and steers them along the path, visiting with familiar faces along the way. Adventure comes their way in the form of a nasty storm that causes the mules to bolt from a lightning strike; then the towline breaks, and Asa's father disappears into the canal. All ends well, however, and both Asa and the reader have learned a lot about this little byway of history. A foreword explains that canals were the highways of the nineteenth century, on which barges carried heavier loads faster than horse-drawn wagons over land. Information on what canal boats looked like and how locks functioned is smoothly worked into the story, which is skillfully illustrated with careful, ambitious pen-and-wash drawings that use interesting perspectives to tell this story. Denise Wilms
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); 1st edition (September 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374425027
• ISBN-13: 978-0374425029
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 9.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,124,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Local history combines with a wonderful story, July 9, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Full Hand (Hardcover)

So much can be learned from this book. Obviously, a child can learn about the importance and mechanisms of canals. Additionally, there is an excellent foray into the relationship between father and son when the working world often began before the teenage years, but most importantly this book teaches us, and our children, to search our own local surroundings to learn about the history, and the people, that created it.

5.0 out of 5 stars Authentic canal story, November 23, 2011

By 

Kathleen Yezerski "Nana bear" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Full Hand (Hardcover)

This is how life really was working on the canals, getting the coal to the cities. The towpaths now make great walking, hiking paths.