This is a great way to get youngster's started on a wonderful, lifelong pastime, and best of all, it's a great alternative to sitting in front of the video game console It's written by a former Adirondack Guide with 50 years of angling experience. It was inspired by the steady stream of non-fishing adults faced with youngsters clamoring to go fishing, and needing advice. It's not your typical guide, and it emphasizes critical thinking and strategy formation as the route to sucessful fishing. It downplays buying tackle, but It covers enough about rods, reels, lines, hooks, and baits to get you started well (without breaking the budget.) It provides basics about fish and their ecosystems, and presents the fishing trip as a chance to observe, puzzle out the individual habitats, and figure out where the fish are. It also encourages further exploration and research. It's all written at a level that youngsters will understand and enjoy, but the content is not 'kid stuff.' Scattered black and white only illustrations make it environmentally friendly and add interest at strategic points. It is gender neutral and emphasizes safety, social responsibility, and a good conservation ethic. It will inspire days of exercising body and mind, and interacting constructively with the outdoors. It makes a great gift for youngsters, and might just rescue the uninitiated adults drafted for supervisory duty.