Customer Reviews

Castaways in Lilliput

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A wonderful children's book. I first read it in 1963 and still love it. Three kids wash up on an uncharted island. To their amazement it is Lilliput and they are the first "giants" to visit since Lemuel Gulliver. Of Course Lilliput has also modernized over the intervening centuries. The children try to find a way to return home, and although the Lilliputians are kind and caring, they wish to preserve the secret of their island home......How will it turn out? Well it's rather a surprize. Read it and find out!

I'm so happy to see this wonderful book back in print. I would have to say that Children's literature is and always has been my favorite genre and I've read thousands upon thousands of children's books. When I say this is one of my favorites of all time, I mean it as high praise indeed. My 4th grade teacher read it to our class back in 1962 and I was captivated by it from the first page. Two brothers and a sister, Ralph, Jim, and Peggy, drift too far out to sea when they are rafting off the coast of Australia. In the darkness of night they do eventually wash up onto a shore...but it is certainly not a familiar shore in any way! It seems the kids have washed aground in Lilliput, the very land where Gulliver's story unfolded long before. There have been no other "giants" in Lilliput since Gulliver's Travels and the Lilliputians are as amazed and unsettled by this event as the children. Lilliput has continued to change and develop in the years since Gulliver's visit and theirs is a modern world not unlike the one the children have left behind, only much, much smaller. The descriptions are really delightful such as when one of the Lilliputians gives poor Peggy a bedspread to wipe her tears. The youngest brother finds ways of getting everyone into trouble and causing some hilarious predicaments. This book has lots of action and is such good food for the imagination that it stuck with me for over 40 years and is still as fresh in my mind as the day my teacher read it. Do the kids ever get home to Australia? Well...wait and see, but don't miss this book, it's the greatest.

"Castaways in Lilliput" is one of those enchanting, delightful imaginary books and features 3 young children, who find themselves stranded in Lilliput, which was, to them, only a fairy tale before. Naturally, they all want to go home (although Peggy is, of course, delighted by the tiny houses filled with furniture); but they find themselves in quite a pickle as they grope around among the miniscule cities and desperately try to convince the Lilliputians that they are not wicked and violent giants.

Quite an entertaining story; I didn't like it quite as much as some of Henry Winterfeld's other books, but worth the time indeed. I wish I could give it 4 1/2 stars, as 4 seems to be a bit underrated. Highly recommended for kids!

Read this as a child and never forgot it. I wanted my grandson to have the same experience. Product arrived promply and in great shape

I got this book to read to my seven year old. He loves the story and asks me to read a chapter, or two, or three to him every day! Great story for kids that love fantasy!

I recently got my hands on an old copy of this well-loved book. My 9 year old daughter was as enchanted as I was with this story of three kids who are castaways in a raft and find themselves on Lilliput. I was very vague on the details but I did remember how charmed I was when the Lilliputians brought food to the children: Tanker trucks with milk, wagons of tiny loaves of bread, teeny-weeny little cheese balls. I also remember how cool it was to picture the kids riding on the train. This book has held up well over the years, it did not seem dated at all. Definitely a must read!

I recently came across this book while babysitting my 9 year-old Nephew. He asked me to find his lost book, and I found it, but also found myself reading it as well. Being 32 years old, I'm not embaraced about confessing this because I enjoyed it as much as my Nephew dose.

I found it rather Ironic that the characters should be Australian, because that's where Lilliput really is. At the time when Swift wrote "Gulliver's Travels," (1726) no Englishman had ever seen the shores of what was then known as "New Holland." (Now, Western Australia.) The exact position of Lilliput is in what is now the edge of the Great Sandy Desert, near the Infamous 1950's nuclear testing ground at Maralinga. So if they're still there, they aren't going to be very happy, hah ha!

The whole story progresses with the 3 kids beings washed ashore and discovered by the local inhabitants, as they attempt to play with the toy like city that they find. After that, the adventure kicks off, with the youngest brother causing all kinds of mischief and cute moments, when Peggy, the girl, is giving a bed sheet to substitute as a hanky.

Over all, it's a fun story that had me reading all night, and is a definite must for younger children, as well as older readers.