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lori85 's review for:
Robinson Crusoe for Boys and Girls
by Daniel Defoe
This is another children's adaptation of Robinson Crusoe published around the same time as James Baldwin's better-known [b:Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children|285840|Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children|James Baldwin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347621067l/285840._SX50_.jpg|277328] (1905). Both were composed by professional (and American) educators, but this one is aimed at a younger audience. McMurry and Husted specify grades two and three, whereas Baldwin's seems targeted more at ages 10-12. Though both leave out Crusoe's adventures before and after the island (such as his period of enslavement by the Moors and trek with Friday across the Pyrenees), this version does include the rescue of Friday's father and the Spaniard, which Baldwin's does not. There is also a sentence at the end that depicts Friday making the conscious choice to leave with Crusoe rather than return home, as opposed to expecting the reader to just take it for granted that of course he would abandon his family and people for more "civilized" lands.
The cannibalism and language referring to "savages" and whatnot remain, however. I know I keep reiterating this in all my Crusoe reviews, but the Carib Indians (Friday's identified nation in the original text) were not cannibals. There has no been archaeological evidence found anywhere in the Caribbean and the surviving Caribs on Dominica state they have no oral history of such practices. The whole thing is a lie propagated by Columbus after the Spanish Crown specified only natives who were cannibals could be enslaved and exploited. Encountering this portrayal time and again in both the 1720 original and adaptations made over the subsequent two hundred years really puts into perspective how long the global regime of white supremacist imperialism lasted.
A third version called [b:An American Robinson Crusoe|1396888|An American Robinson Crusoe|Samuel Buell Allison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348463262l/1396888._SX50_.jpg|1387059] was published in 1918 by a Chicago school superintendent.
The cannibalism and language referring to "savages" and whatnot remain, however. I know I keep reiterating this in all my Crusoe reviews, but the Carib Indians (Friday's identified nation in the original text) were not cannibals. There has no been archaeological evidence found anywhere in the Caribbean and the surviving Caribs on Dominica state they have no oral history of such practices. The whole thing is a lie propagated by Columbus after the Spanish Crown specified only natives who were cannibals could be enslaved and exploited. Encountering this portrayal time and again in both the 1720 original and adaptations made over the subsequent two hundred years really puts into perspective how long the global regime of white supremacist imperialism lasted.
A third version called [b:An American Robinson Crusoe|1396888|An American Robinson Crusoe|Samuel Buell Allison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348463262l/1396888._SX50_.jpg|1387059] was published in 1918 by a Chicago school superintendent.