Funeral homes and fly fishing don't seem to have much in common, but both affect the life of the main character in author Mary Bartek's first novel for young readers.

Bartek, a former Knoch High School teacher, has written "Funerals and Fly Fishing" in addition to short stories, humor and family essays, and newspaper articles. She works as a language arts and gifted and talented coordinator in the Cherry Creek School District in Colorado.

In her newest book, 12-year-old Brad Stanislawski, is sent to spend a week with a grandfather he's never met, a man who runs a funeral home in a small town in Pennsylvania. It turns out the grandfather in the story is also a fly fisherman, a hobby he can share with his grandson.

From the book:

"I start up the street toward my grandfather's house. Just how weird is it that I, Brad Stanislawski, am walking toward a funeral home of my own free will?"

Bartek based the story on some facts from her own life. She grew up in the small Pennsylvania town of Windber in Somerset County, where she lived in the funeral home her father directed.

Though she does not enjoy fly fishing, her husband does and he ties his own flies.

"I'm just as happy to take a nature walk or sit down with a book," she said.

The difference between Pennsylvania - where she used to live - and Colorado, where she lives now - is that "out here the sky is a lot bigger, with nothing to block it out. And there are no fireflies out West." The firefly, incidentally, is Pennsylvania's state insect.

"Funerals and Fly Fishing" was released by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers in 2004. It was named an International Reading Association notable book, and recommended to the list of the Bankstreet College of Education recommended children's books of 2005.

"Funerals and Fly Fishing" is available in hardcover in stores and online for $16.95.