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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
what a charming book. no wonder the man won the Newberry with it. filled with fanciful inventions, immense treasure, and high risk adventure, this book might even get my youngest reading beyond comic books. even hubby remembered this tale from school and was thrilled to see it on our kitchen counter.
adventurous
lighthearted
I have had this on my to read shelf for seven years and just found it in a free box at a rummage sale! Like many books from this era (1948), this one is not without little bits of racism sprinkled here and there, but it is full of whimsy and pencil drawings from the author... it reminded me of the style of E.B. White.
I did envision this taking a darker turn. At the start we learn that he and 80 others have escaped an island, and as he recounts his tale he tells of landing at the island only to be told he’s a “permanent guest” as everything is top secret and he can never leave. Apparently that was just fine with him, although their society is basically a cult (they call their communist government a “gourmet government” or restaurant-style government - in which each family is forced to cook for the 80 citizens once a month. Oh, and the months are all renumbered and renamed based on the food, the citizens have lost their birth names and are now a letter of the alphabet. What happens when their children grow up and get married? When, say, J-1 marries E-2? I guess they join the J family and their children would be J-3 and J-4 and they continue their family restaurant of Japanese food.).
Anyway I’d give it 2.5 stars, rounding up to 3 for Goodreads rating because I’m feeling generous!
I did envision this taking a darker turn. At the start we learn that he and 80 others have escaped an island, and as he recounts his tale he tells of landing at the island only to be told he’s a “permanent guest” as everything is top secret and he can never leave. Apparently that was just fine with him, although their society is basically a cult (they call their communist government a “gourmet government” or restaurant-style government - in which each family is forced to cook for the 80 citizens once a month. Oh, and the months are all renumbered and renamed based on the food, the citizens have lost their birth names and are now a letter of the alphabet. What happens when their children grow up and get married? When, say, J-1 marries E-2? I guess they join the J family and their children would be J-3 and J-4 and they continue their family restaurant of Japanese food.).
Anyway I’d give it 2.5 stars, rounding up to 3 for Goodreads rating because I’m feeling generous!
I loved this book as a child. Upon reread I was sad to see just how racist the main character is! Still a fun story though.
Read with 7 year old daughter. Loved this book when I was a kid; it really made me think.
I’d never read this as a child and once I learned about classics, I just didn’t want anything to do with them. This one proved me wrong. We read this aloud and used it to add context to our writing curriculum. I was delighted to hear both of my boys (11&15yo) ask me to keep reading!
This was a really fun read and I think my girls would have given it 4 stars. I thought it got off to a really slow start... all of the preparations to here the professor's story could have been put into one chapter instead of several. I would have liked more detail about the island life or even the professor's time in the air. While we had a good time reading this it certainly wouldn't have been a Newbery contender today- times have certainly changed.
My son read this for school and liked it so much he insisted I read it too. It's a quick, fun story that's a teeny bit dated. My son didn't mind, though, since it's full of crazy inventions and lots of diamonds! It was a perfect read for him, and quirky enough to keep me reading.
A great quick read, and one of the best books I've read! Would most definitely recommend.