Swallows and Amazons

Title: Swallows and Amazons
Author: Arthur Ransome
Series: Swallows and Amazons, book 1
Major Themes: Sailing, Boats, Children, Friends, Siblings, England
Synopsis: When the four Walker children went camping, on their own, on a deserted island, they found a lot of excitement.

Many years ago, we were given the book We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, and some time after, I figured out that it was part of a series. We never read it together, though, until recently. About the time we read that one aloud, I got my hands on the first book in the series, Swallows and Amazons, and one of the children chose it for me to read aloud next. What a treat!

Publisher’s description:

My thoughts:

Swallows and Amazons gets off to a slow start. We were probably halfway through the book before the action really picked up. The first part describes the four Walker children getting permission to sail a small boat to a little island and setting up their camp. It isn’t until the two Amazon pirates show up that the action really begins—and then my children really started enjoying the story! Before long, they didn’t want me to stop reading.

Swallows and Amazons is a delightful story of children who were allowed to have adventures without adults around. They were allowed to do what they wanted, within reason; their parents trusted them to be sensible. I loved the way the older ones looked out for the younger ones and took care of them. The dynamics between the children from the two families are great, too; the two groups of children agreed to have a war to decide who would be the leader of all of them. The “war” involved trying to gain control of the others’ boat—and the conclusion to that war was quite surprising! We also enjoyed their solution to the problems they had with an adult who falsely accused them of something.

No warnings!

——————
Related posts:

We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea Trouble at Timpetill No Ocean Too Wide Enemy Brothers