Karl's Reading List

Published by Red Fox/Random House Children's Publishers UK: London, England, 2012 (1993). First published 1949 or 1951. Book 1 in the 'Adventure' series. Followed by ' South Sea Adventure. ' This is the first in a series of 14 novels written by adventurer Willard Price. I remember reading them when I was younger, and have slowly built up my collection of the series over time. I actually started reading this book with Elise, but after a few chapters it hadn't gripped us as a 'shared' book, so we put it aside and then I picked it up again more recently. The book stars brothers Hal and Roger Hunt, in their late and mid teens respectively, who, with their father John, are travelling into the Amazon to capture a variety of animals for zoos, circuses and the like. Already this is a mildly uncomfortable topic for modern sensibilities; it gets even more so when the Hunts purchase a shrunken head from a native village for a museum of natural history. "At fir...

Published by Anderson Press: London, 2016. Alone leaps straight into the action. Thirteen year old Sam survives a plane crash and is swimming through the stormy night trying to escape the scene. Soon he finds that he is stranded alone in the Amazonian jungle, and must learn how to survive his ordeal. The book doesn't mince words or pull punches. Diarrhea, leeches in hard to reach crevices, eating maggots, slicing hands open... all of these episodes are a little gross to read, and as the book progresses Sam's run of bad luck does occasionally veer into the ridiculous level - if anything good happens there is bound to be another episode of pain or sickness around the corner. This makes it somewhat unsettling when Sam befriends a young otter, particularly when that otter faces life-threatening situations by being around Sam. Will it all end well? Enjoyable on the whole. Probably won't read again. Completed 12 February 2021. Previous Book ~ Next Book

Published by Hodder and Stoughton: Great Britain: 1970 (1963). This book tells the true story of Elka, a witchdoctor from a 'primitive tribe' in South America, who becomes a Christian following the arrival of missionaries to his region of the Amazon. The unique aspect of the book is that it is told almost entirely from the (third-person) perspective of Elka himself, giving the reader an understanding of the tribal life and beliefs of the Wai Wai people before introducing the missionary element. Following Elka's conversion, we also get insight into the growing Christian understanding of his tribe. There is a fun 'innocence' to the way the Wai Wai people understand their faith, based partially on the newness of their faith, and also the very foreign culture that their understanding takes root in and develops from. The idea of marriage, for example, in the pre-Christian tribal life is very loose - 'sharing' of spouses is common, and a 'wedding' is simpl...