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His real name is Lyle Williams, and for the first twelve years of his life, that is what everybody calls him. Kyle is an only child, until his mother and father bring home three baby sisters: Kara, Sara and Tara. They’re pretty easy to contain until they start crawling, but Lyle and his parents need to keep up with them once they become mobile. Lyle learns to observe, react quickly, and move quickly to prevent the swallowing of dangerous objects or grabbing of breakables.
So it should come as no surprise one day when Lyle is playing soccer after a couple of rainy days and lots of mud that, even though he’s just been tripped and is flat on his face, he reaches out and makes a lightning grab for the ankle of the player with the ball. Teammates claim that he’s like a mud shark - lying in the mud, capturing its prey so fast that a high-speed camera can’t even catch it. Thus, Lyle becomes known as Mudshark.
Even if he hadn’t captured and brought down that player, Lyle is still special. He’s cool, though he’s not sure why. He just knows that he is, and he knows that the other kids know he is. When his principal begins issuing requests for help with missing objects in the school, Kyle is the one to figure out the mystery. When the library adds a talking bird to their collection, Kyle is the one to unravel how the bird knows where missing items will be discovered.
Gary Paulsen never disappoints his readers. From his very earliest stories, he has been a trusted author for elementary and middle school readers. Mudshark is just one more reason why kids love to read his books.
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Mudshark