Customer Reviews
Finding Fish 
2007-01-29
Finding Fish, by Antwone Fisher, is a passionate and heart wrenching look into the life of the author as a ward of the state. Thankfully, he escapes the terrors of his childhood and eventually finds success. Fisher writes with a distinctive voice. He is able to convey the emotions of the young boy he portrays in the memoir, rather than telling the story through the voice of an adult. The memoir is an honest, and shocking, look into the world of an orphan without anyone to protect him. His father had been shot two months before his birth and his mom is in prison. Throughout his life with the Picketts,his foster parents, Antwone is forced through horrific events that are painful to read about. He is molested at a young age by a babysitter, beaten, mentally abused, and treated like a ghost. He becomes reserved and shy, lacking love and the comfort of a family. Even worse, his social workers are sadly oblivious to the abuse because the Picketts are able to transform into respectable and polite adults when in public. Remarkably, Antwone braves through his torturous childhood, as well as homelessness for a short time, and finds himself in the Navy. This becomes his miracle, and inspires him to do more with his life. He finds himself traveling around the world, educating himself about different cultures as well as teaching himself English with the help of a thesaurus. In comparison to his childhood, Antwone is in paradise. This transition from a hopeless child with no allies in the world to a strong, successful Navy officer illustrates a major theme in the memoir. No matter how horrible somebody's life is, with perseverance and hope it is possible to achieve anything. Although Antwone is thrown into a terrible life, he finds his own success and thankfully escapes his past and finds happiness. This book is an emotional rollercoaster and any reader will become attached to Antwone, rooting for him against the negativity in his life.
FINDING FISH carries a profound impact... 
2006-08-21
and taught me something. It taught me how much we all share--the need to belong, for family, to search, to question. This book is unexpected tender and this boy's journey impacted my own journey, my own questions of family, of accceptance.
~Carol D. O'Dell
Author, MOTHERING MOTHER
Kunati Publishing, April 2007
A magical child matures and we get to be in on it! 2006-08-13
At first I resisted this book because it seemed to be written by an adult looking over his childhood from a very mature place. However, late in the book it is a revelatory experience to find that this is exactly what happened when an unfair accusation concerning Antwone at age 25 during his Navy experience 'caused' him to buy a dictionary, a thesorus and learn writing almost from scratch at this age. He soon found that he couldn't stop. Later he wrote this book that has become a best seller very deservedly. It is full of remarkable coincidences that could not be other than genuine because of hundreds of tiny clews that all add up to this person having been there. This is a profound work concerning human holistic Intelligence that Confirms Joseph Pierce's 'Magical Child Matures."
Good Book! 2006-03-16
Finding Fish was a good book. I first learned of Antowne Fisher a few years ago when he appeared on the Montell Williams show. After hearing his story on the show I immediately wanted to go out and buy his book to find out more about this wonderful young man but could never find the book. A few years went by and then a movie of his life was made. After seeing the movie, which I thought was very good, I decided that the movie did a good job of telling his story and that I no longer wanted to purchase the book. Some years later I was in a book store looking for some books to purchase and came across Finding Fish on the book shelf. Since I was in a thrift book store I said what the heck and purchased this book along with some others. Well needless to say it was meant for me to read this book. The movie just touched on a small portion of his life and did nothing to give us a better understanding of Antwone's full story. The book went into more detail and was just phenomenal. I have such respect and admiration for Mr. Fisher and all that he endured. The saying is true: "All things happen for a reason" were it not for his horrific
childhood I don't think Antwone would be the man he is today. Kudows for Mr. Fisher!! If you have not read this book I recommend you do.
FINDING FISH 2006-03-06
Wow..if you thought the movie was thought provoking..
the book is beyond that!
This book covers Antwone's childhood, where in the movie,
we only saw a taste of it.
This book tells the story of a little boy who beat the odds,
and used his innate ability to survive, extreme verbal, emotional
sexual and physical abuse.
Catching Motivation 2006-01-31
Antwone Quenton Fisher was raised in institutions from the moment his single mother gave birth to him in prison. As a foster child, he suffered more than a dozen years of emotional abandonment and physical abuse, until he escaped and forged a life on the streets. And just as his life was about to hit rock bottom, Antwone enlisted in the U.S. Navy -- a decision that would ultimately save him. There, he became a man and discovered a loving family he never had. Through it all, Antwone refused to allow his spirit to be broken and never gave up his dreams of a better day.
A miraculous true story of one courageous man's journey from abandonment and abuse to extraordinary success, here is a modern-day, African-American Oliver Twist you will never forget.
Performed by Alton Fitzgerald White.
Fish: The Boy Who Overcame the Odds 2006-01-31
Finding Fish, by Antwone Quenton Fisher is a memoir of Antwone's journey through life thus far. Antwone was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Eva-Mae Fisher who was in jail at the time. His father, Eddie Elkins, was shot and killed before he was even born. When he was born he was given to Child Services (Foster Care) by Eva-Mae. Emerging from Antwone's life is one major theme: you should never give up hope in life because even through the darkest of times, light will eventually find a way through. Antwone is living proof of this theme, having learned it early on in his life. He uses rain as his example of how sometimes you can't control all of the bad things in life and you should look to what the future holds. Antwone wrote, "There were going to be days, I knew, when it would pour without warning, days when I'd find myself without an umbrella. But my understanding would act as my all-purpose slicker and rubber boots. It was preparing me for stormy weather, arming me with the knowledge that no matter how hard it seemed, it couldn't rain forever. At some point, I knew, it would end." The story of Antwone's life is both riveting and suspenseful. The situations he has had to endure throughout his life seem so shocking and unreal, it is unimaginable that he was able to deal with them. It is a very enjoyable book and never boring at any point.
The book starts out in the 1950's in a working class town in Cleveland, Ohio. Antwone Fisher lives with the Picketts, who have taken in many foster children. But don't let their hospitality fool you, it doesn't mean they are nice, they only do it for the money. Mr. Pickett is also a Reverend at the church, which also gives you the impression that they are nice, caring people, but this impression is crushed quite quickly after witnessing their abuse of the children. Antwone grew up with Dwight and Flo, both of whom were foster children, and Mercy and Lizzie, twins and not foster children. Mercy was the nicer of the twins and always treated Antwone kindly. Antwone's childhood was very deprived and torturous. For example, he was beaten often by Mizz Picket, he never had a proper Christmas, and he didn't get to eat his own Halloween candy. His surroundings changed frequently through his childhood and he didn't have any real friends until middle school, who were then left behind when he went to a different high school than they did. Antwone had to even go through homelessness for a period of his life, after he got into a fight with Mizz Pickett and she sent him back to Child Services. His first sign of hope that his life would change for the better is after he joins the navy. Antwone lived his life in need of guidance and didn't get any from Mizz Pickett. Antwone's dreams "...became a lighthouse, distant yet visible, in the tempest of my [his] youth, guidance I [he] would surely need in the greater storms to come." Without getting help from the people around him, Antwone used his own imagination and dreams as guidance to try and keep his life on track. The main plot of the book is that Antwone has to try to survive and grow up in a dysfunctional household without any real parent figures there to help him along.
This book is very enjoyable. Even though Antwone wrote this book many years after this all happened, he was able to have a unique writing style and voice to fit in with each part of his life. His voice got progressively "older" as he grew up which really helped the book flow. I would highly recommend this book to young adults and adults because it is a very inspirational story of one man's journey through life. It shows how you can make good things happen out of even the most dismal of situations.
Finding fish review 2005-05-28
The book Finding Fish written by Antwone Fisher is a heart felt book. It tells the story of a young man who goes through trials with not only himself and friends, but with his abusive family. This book will show how easy most of the world has it and how many take things for granted. Young teens should read this book because it relates to many of the situations that we go through daily. It shows that also children that who are going through the same thing are not alone. This book has taught me that life can be so much worse. I thank the author for written this book because it can change people lives.
Finding Fish, as deep as the Ocean 2005-04-15
Finding Fish is a very inspiring book for all of you that feel like you have nothing and feel like you will never amount to anything in your life. This book is about a young boy, Antwone,that grew up in a bad evironment and ended up moving from a foster home to orphanage type homes, to the street, and finally went to the marines.He went through so much, but managed to make something of himself.
Antwone went through a very hard life, and conquered many hardships in his life. For example, when he was a young boy and living with the picketts, he was abused in many different ways and he made it through all of the pain and the put downs. They always told him how worthless he was and that he would never amount to anything, and he believed them, until he got out and realixed what he could really do. He grew up not having too many friends and always struggled to fit in, until he got to high school, and knew how to stand up for himself. Even through all of his pain and misery, Antwone never used any kind of drug to try and take the pain away, for example, when he was younger and on the street, he dealt with a bad guy that was a pimp and a drug seller and he had chances to try it, but he never did.
As Antwone went through all of these different homes, he met many bad people and some people that tried to help him out. Even with all the bad people around, he stuck to the good road, and decided to become a Marine, because he had nowhere else to go. When he was in the Marines, he learned of many good traits that he had despite all of the times that the Picketts told him he was worthless. For example, his majors at the Marines wrote that he:
"...performs duties in an orderly
and professional manner. Has a
forceful attitude that gets hings
done. Very impressive in uniform
and civilian attire."
In his last report, his Major said:
"SH2 Fisher is always impressive
in uniform. He had an excellent
written and oral command of the
English language. He fully
suppports the Navy Equal
Opportunity programs. Petty
Officer Fisher has tremendous
potential and excellent qualites."
After all of this, he turned his life around and did better for himself. He made it through life becoming a writer and making his money.
I am positive that no matter who you are, you will find at least on thing, if not more, to relate. This book is very blunt and deep in the way that they describe everything that goes on and happens in his life. I think that this book is so incredibly good and I would give it a 20 out of 10. It is always interesting and there is never a time where it is just not interesting. Everyone should read this book at least once in their life.
Wow! 2005-03-12
I was so touched by the movie I just had to read the book. I've finally got around to it and I'm even more touched. I am so glad there was a happy ending for Mr. Fisher.
