Swiss Family Robinson

[kellyrfineman]

Picking up on my series of books I read and re-read and loved as a child (I discussed Jane-Emily the other day, and The Borrowers and Little Men earlier this week), today I bring you The Swiss Family Robinson. It's not pirates, but as they lived in fear of pirates and on a deserted island, I thought the icon was close enough. I cannot share with

Comments

[tracyworld]

I read this when I was young, too. Don't know if I read it multiple times but remember loving the tree house. That was the main attraction for me.

But...

Several years ago I tried this as a read-aloud to my boys and we had to quit. It felt as if every couple pages one of the kids was blasting an animal in the bushes. It was pretty upsetting for all of us. The weird thing is I've always been extremely sensitive to this kind of stuff and I don't have memories of reading those passages when little. Maybe I was blinded by that tree house!

[kellyrfineman]

Could be. It could also be that you read a slightly different version of the text. If you look at the ones currently for sale, they range from about 51 pages to 150 pages to 200+ pages to 350+ pages. Some of those shorter versions have obviously left stuff out. Like the killing of wolves, which I do remember being distressed about.

[fabulousfrock]

Loving these posts... I was SO into secret hideaways and also survival stories as a kid... I had this whole idea that I could make things out of plants in the woods and construct a shelter and all sorts of things--this, considering I was the most un-athletic, un-outdoorsy kid imaginable. I nearly ruined one of my mom's high school autograph books when I left it in my outside "fort" for some reason. In pure kid fashion, instead of real survival supplies, I left a shoebox with the most random stuff imaginable out there--stuff like a wooden top or a handkerchief, or my poor mom's autograph book which got all water damaged, luckily she wasn't that attached to it.

[kellyrfineman]

I am certain that my attempts at creating a secret hideaway in the woods (with my brother) when we were young were similarly, um, lame. I think we moved some sticks to suggest the shape of a square, and went no further than that.

[docstymie]

[kellyrfineman]

I wonder if you read books and just don't remember them, or if you didn't actually read much. Lots of kids don't read all that much, and lots of kids don't remember a lot of stuff from when they were young, so it could go either way.

I didn't mind The Scarlet Letter, although it raised my tease-ability factor (my maiden name was Ramsdell, and the minister in the book is Dimsdale, so you can sort that out quickly). I didn't love The Red Badge of Courage, however.

[docstymie]

[kellyrfineman]

That is because of all the boring books by dead white guys assigned in school when we were kids. Although, come to think of it, a lot of boring dead people's books are still being assigned to S, who is taking honors English.

It's sad, really, when there's so much great contemporary stuff available.