alissabar's review against another edition
3.0
I remember in the 6th grade being sick and having to miss about a week's worth of school. After sending a stack of homework for me to do, my teacher also recommended this book to me. He told me I would love it. I did. I decided to reread it to see if it held up to my memories of being a great book. I ended up reading it aloud to my 10-year-old and he loved it too!
I believe this book was written in 1945. The author had survived serving in the war in the Navy and uses some of that life experience in writing this story. The father in this book is reported as missing in the South Pacific and as the story starts up he has been gone so long he is presumed dead. There are some racial slurs as was common at the time. Also there are many references to boats and sailing, which was a little unfamiliar for me and my son. But there are some great adventures that the characters go through and survive, several of which had us on the edge of our seats. I'm glad I revisited this book.
2017 Reading Challenge #25: A book you loved as a child
I believe this book was written in 1945. The author had survived serving in the war in the Navy and uses some of that life experience in writing this story. The father in this book is reported as missing in the South Pacific and as the story starts up he has been gone so long he is presumed dead. There are some racial slurs as was common at the time. Also there are many references to boats and sailing, which was a little unfamiliar for me and my son. But there are some great adventures that the characters go through and survive, several of which had us on the edge of our seats. I'm glad I revisited this book.
2017 Reading Challenge #25: A book you loved as a child
carissagp3's review against another edition
5.0
This was my favorite group as a kid after Mrs. Peters read this to us. I actually have a copy of it that she gave to me when I was in 5th grade. I will definitely read this to my children whenever I have some.
rosereads7's review
5.0
My mother-in-law read this aloud to me while I was on bed rest. They say babies in the womb can start to hear around 20 weeks, so we wanted to acclimate Holly to our voices and instill in her a love of reading.
[b:The Lion's Paw|495305|The Lion's Paw|Robb White|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1465021294s/495305.jpg|483462] is an adventure story about two runaway orphans and a 15-year-old boy whose father is MIA from the navy and presumed dead. They sail through the lakes and rivers of Florida making their way to the Gulf in search of their freedom and a very special shell, a lion’s paw.
I read this right after reading Torre DeRoche’s [b:Love with a Chance of Drowning|16242289|Love with a Chance of Drowning|Torre DeRoche|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1361477428s/16242289.jpg|17465798], a memoir about a woman’s year-long sailing trip across the Pacific Ocean from California to Australia with her Argentinian boyfriend. This book sorely disappointed me, as I was looking for a fun, adventurous tale of life at sea; instead, the book read like one woman’s attempt to conquer her fears of the ocean and drowning, while never seeming to enjoy her time at sea—rather she viewed it as something to be endured.
The Lion’s Paw succeeded where Love with a Chance of Drowning failed. The feeling of adventure and the pursuit of unknown is celebrated. The children look at their new surroundings with a sense of wonder, hope, and fear. Their willingness to continue their journey despite their hardships and setbacks is admirable. Of course, they are children and do make mistakes at times. Robb White writes these scenes with humor or graveness depending on the severity of the situation.
I like that he doesn’t sugar-coat the story. He incorporates sailing terminology, as well as events from WWII in a surprisingly realistic way for a children’s novel. He describes a scene where two men were trapped on a sinking ship with no chance of rescue and imagines their final hours aboard the dark ship, water slowly filling the vessel inch by inch, and the terror they must have felt as they faced death. The book was written in 1946 and I don’t imagine this type of scene being in a children’s book today. We tend to want to protect children from the horrors of the world, preserving their childhood innocence. However, I think it’s important for literature to instill values and educate, as well as to entertain and cultivate the imagination. White subtlety shows the horrors and repercussions of war throughout the book (the scene described above is a two-page scene in a 200-page book), while keeping the main focus on the children’s sailing adventure.
The book is set in Florida (my home state) and I enjoyed reading about the flora and fauna of the place—the Spanish moss, the alligators, the swamps. White definitely understands the motherly-protectiveness of alligators, which not many people know about, but I’ve personally witnessed in the everglades. The one time an alligator is sure to move, is when it’s guarding its babies.
Overall, it’s a fun read and I recommend it for children and parents alike.
[b:The Lion's Paw|495305|The Lion's Paw|Robb White|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1465021294s/495305.jpg|483462] is an adventure story about two runaway orphans and a 15-year-old boy whose father is MIA from the navy and presumed dead. They sail through the lakes and rivers of Florida making their way to the Gulf in search of their freedom and a very special shell, a lion’s paw.
I read this right after reading Torre DeRoche’s [b:Love with a Chance of Drowning|16242289|Love with a Chance of Drowning|Torre DeRoche|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1361477428s/16242289.jpg|17465798], a memoir about a woman’s year-long sailing trip across the Pacific Ocean from California to Australia with her Argentinian boyfriend. This book sorely disappointed me, as I was looking for a fun, adventurous tale of life at sea; instead, the book read like one woman’s attempt to conquer her fears of the ocean and drowning, while never seeming to enjoy her time at sea—rather she viewed it as something to be endured.
The Lion’s Paw succeeded where Love with a Chance of Drowning failed. The feeling of adventure and the pursuit of unknown is celebrated. The children look at their new surroundings with a sense of wonder, hope, and fear. Their willingness to continue their journey despite their hardships and setbacks is admirable. Of course, they are children and do make mistakes at times. Robb White writes these scenes with humor or graveness depending on the severity of the situation.
I like that he doesn’t sugar-coat the story. He incorporates sailing terminology, as well as events from WWII in a surprisingly realistic way for a children’s novel. He describes a scene where two men were trapped on a sinking ship with no chance of rescue and imagines their final hours aboard the dark ship, water slowly filling the vessel inch by inch, and the terror they must have felt as they faced death. The book was written in 1946 and I don’t imagine this type of scene being in a children’s book today. We tend to want to protect children from the horrors of the world, preserving their childhood innocence. However, I think it’s important for literature to instill values and educate, as well as to entertain and cultivate the imagination. White subtlety shows the horrors and repercussions of war throughout the book (the scene described above is a two-page scene in a 200-page book), while keeping the main focus on the children’s sailing adventure.
The book is set in Florida (my home state) and I enjoyed reading about the flora and fauna of the place—the Spanish moss, the alligators, the swamps. White definitely understands the motherly-protectiveness of alligators, which not many people know about, but I’ve personally witnessed in the everglades. The one time an alligator is sure to move, is when it’s guarding its babies.
Overall, it’s a fun read and I recommend it for children and parents alike.
maineyankee's review
5.0
Even though written as a juvenile novel, this is among my two or three favorite books of all time. It's dated but timeless. It climbs from despair to joy. It snatches you into the action and doesn't let you go until the unforgettable ending. I've read it several times -- a day or two can cover it.
More...