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Search for Big Lou
Presley dreads her forced summer camp adventure, but epic prank wars, standing up to the camp bully, and fishing for Big Lou, a 100-pound catfish, make the experience one for the record books. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Chapter Books is an imprint of Spotlight, a division of ABDO.
- GenresChildrens
144 pages, Library Binding
Published December 15, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 1, 2024
This book is great for anyone who likes fishing. It is a book about a ginormous catfish at a summer camp. There are competitions and the girls are in the fishing event trying to catch big lou. The girls team have never won the competition event, the boys have won every year. Will the girls finally win?
April 27, 2022
I think that people should read this book cause it has thrillers and has its downsides. The book is about this fish that is like 40 years old and presily has a friend that catches it and it is 113 pounds. it is a good book.
April 10, 2023
Read to the kiddo (boy 7)- a fast paced book about a summer camp, rival cabins and a legendary fish.
November 1, 2025
So, I have read three or four (maybe more) Lane Walker books to date. I was not at all excited to read this book, going into it, based on the previous Lane Walker books. May I digress for a moment? My wife had bout about a half dozen Lane Walker books for my son (age 6?) at the time. We, of course, pre-read anything before it is presented to him. Let me say, Lane Walker has never been hunting, fishing, or, in this case, going to summer camp. The information has always been inaccurate, and I expected no better going into this book.
On the surface, the book is about a city girl attending summer camp for two weeks at the age of 13 or 14. I say he has never been to summer camp because he misses the interaction of teenage boys and girls, especially when they are all in their teenage years. It's not about the boys trying to beat the girls, and it's not about the girls trying to get even with the boys. Let's start there.
Maybe Lane Walker has been breathing too many of his ketchup and mustard fumes...sorry, you will have to read the book to get that one. The book is a very short read; the chapters are even shorter. If this book were a normal size and font, it would be approximately 35 pages long and could be read in one sitting.
Too much of the book is spent focusing on getting the reader to the last chapter, which is a real letdown. I would have liked to have known what the girls did at summer camp, besides waiting for the last chapter to arrive. And when that last chapter does arrive, it is very drawn out, which is what the whole book was lacking...depth.
All right, all right - you say I am being too critical, think of this as a kid's book. Ok, I will look at it from a public-school perspective - OK, then it may have depth. However, it was still written at a 5-6-year-old level, which it really lacked - that is, it did not convince me that this was written for anyone past 6 years old. Yes, I come from a homeschool co-op where our kids are reading books like this at ages 3-4, so dock me. Our kids also aren't still in diapers by age 3.
However, I did like the book, I enjoyed it, and I did anticipate the ending. Which fell flat. The book had been building up to this moment, and everything fell flat in a minute. Without giving away the ending, which the book did at the end of every chapter, it left you wanting more...more sentences, more paragraphs, one more line, one more chapter. I understand books like this. It's why I almost always write an epilogue to my books. The reader may say, 'Yeah, the story ended great, but it just ended; I wanted just a little bit more to bring it all together.' This book desperately needed an epilogue to give the reader closure.
So read it; you won't like the ending, which you will already know by the time you read the back cover, or chapter one, or chapter two... it won't matter.
Will I read another Lane Walker book? Sure, if I find another lying around that my wife forgot to take to the donations...where this one is going. Oh, and as long as I don't have to pay for it.
P.S. - Three 12-13-year-old girls would not be able to hold up a 100+ lbs. catfish for photos. They would not.
On the surface, the book is about a city girl attending summer camp for two weeks at the age of 13 or 14. I say he has never been to summer camp because he misses the interaction of teenage boys and girls, especially when they are all in their teenage years. It's not about the boys trying to beat the girls, and it's not about the girls trying to get even with the boys. Let's start there.
Maybe Lane Walker has been breathing too many of his ketchup and mustard fumes...sorry, you will have to read the book to get that one. The book is a very short read; the chapters are even shorter. If this book were a normal size and font, it would be approximately 35 pages long and could be read in one sitting.
Too much of the book is spent focusing on getting the reader to the last chapter, which is a real letdown. I would have liked to have known what the girls did at summer camp, besides waiting for the last chapter to arrive. And when that last chapter does arrive, it is very drawn out, which is what the whole book was lacking...depth.
All right, all right - you say I am being too critical, think of this as a kid's book. Ok, I will look at it from a public-school perspective - OK, then it may have depth. However, it was still written at a 5-6-year-old level, which it really lacked - that is, it did not convince me that this was written for anyone past 6 years old. Yes, I come from a homeschool co-op where our kids are reading books like this at ages 3-4, so dock me. Our kids also aren't still in diapers by age 3.
However, I did like the book, I enjoyed it, and I did anticipate the ending. Which fell flat. The book had been building up to this moment, and everything fell flat in a minute. Without giving away the ending, which the book did at the end of every chapter, it left you wanting more...more sentences, more paragraphs, one more line, one more chapter. I understand books like this. It's why I almost always write an epilogue to my books. The reader may say, 'Yeah, the story ended great, but it just ended; I wanted just a little bit more to bring it all together.' This book desperately needed an epilogue to give the reader closure.
So read it; you won't like the ending, which you will already know by the time you read the back cover, or chapter one, or chapter two... it won't matter.
Will I read another Lane Walker book? Sure, if I find another lying around that my wife forgot to take to the donations...where this one is going. Oh, and as long as I don't have to pay for it.
P.S. - Three 12-13-year-old girls would not be able to hold up a 100+ lbs. catfish for photos. They would not.
March 21, 2023
very good
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews