Customer Reviews

The Swiss Family Robinson (Illustrated Junior Library)

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

 

 

Was it just me, or when you were a kid were you too mystified by why the castaways were so anxious to get off of Gilligan's Island? Personally, even if Ginger hadn't been there, it always seemed like a pretty idyllic existence. (Lost in Space was a little easier to fathom; Dr. Smith was a royal pain & the kids were profoundly annoying.) So when we were all sick one time and our Mom read us Swiss Family Robinson, one of the immense satisfactions of the tale was that most of the family decided to stay on their island after help came and even those who left seemed destined to return. A couple of years later we got to see the fine Disney version and, though it makes some significant changes in the story, it too has been a favorite of mine ever since.

Johann Wyss's classic (it was actually completed by his son) is an extraordinarily unsubtle family version of Robinson Crusoe. The Robinson's are shipwrecked somewhere near New Guinea but through pluck, self reliance, familial togetherness and a heavy dollop of Christian faith they manage to create fairly comfortable lives for themselves, domesticating seemingly every animal known to man and cultivating innumerable crops.

While their adventures are always instructive and informative, the book is awfully repetitious, we don't really need the blow by blow description of how each animal is tamed and every foodstuff harvested. And many folks will find the Christian message far to heavy-handed. I actually think this is a case where it's pretty easy to justify reading kids an abridged version, rather than the entire original text. But the story is great fun and is particularly interesting as an example of the Western man regnant species of writing. The sort of blithe assumption that this family would completely conquer the wilderness is a remnant of the age when white, Christian Europe/America had the utmost confidence in our Manifest Destiny to rule nature.

It's hard to imagine a book like this being written today. In fact, I recall a movie called Friday from several years ago, which portrayed Robinson Crusoe as a sort of helpless fop, completely dependent on Friday. In the current climate of political correctness, an author approaching the Swiss Family Robinson story would most likely ditch the religious angle entirely, have the family display much greater sensitivity for the animals which they readily exploit in the novel and, of course, there's no way the boys would be allowed to take such great pleasure in hunting and learning to shoot. But, as it stands, despite a little too much pedantry and proselytizing, this is just a good old-fashioned adventure--kids, boys in particular, should thoroughly enjoy it.

GRADE: B-

the whole thing is a bit unrealistic although,it is well written. to explain the swiss family robinson in a nutshell...in the early 19th century the robinsons are shipwrecked on an island and must survive on their own,which they do. everything works like "magic" for them:they find food,they do not get sick,they do not get hurt. the island they are on has a completely false array of animals:jackals,kangaroos,eagles,monkeys-a sort-of "noah's ark" of the animal world. also the characters were one dimensional and we never get inside the mind of any of them. the whole story was very odd.

i believe the major problem with this story is that it was originally written in 1812 and i think the author

intended to "shock and awe" the people of the 19th century with his fantastic story of adventure. i believe what

has happened is that over time,the story has become outdated. sorry,but it does happen.

i would say to readers who have never read it,it could be read for curiosity's sake and it really is not for

young children,more for teens or adults.

SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON is a magnificent classic! I read it when I was about twelve years old; I was rivetted by every scene then, and I still remember every scene now, more than forty years later. I cannot imagine anyone--adult or child--not being thrilled by this story of one family's struggle to survive a shipwreck, float supplies ashore before a storm destroyed the wreckage of their ship, build a tree house, plant crops and medicinal herbs, and, yes, slaughter the occasional animal to eat or to protect themselves! Nobody could object to this unforgettable classic except a vegetarian fanatic.

This book is one worth reading. I would suggest it if you like adventure novels. I have read it a total of 8 or 9 times. You wont regret buying it. A good first long book for children.

Read as a helpless family is hopelessly abandoned on a desert island. It is amazing how they build the perfect dreamhouse using nothing but hard work, ingenious inventions, and nature.

Do not read this book if you value your sanity and have respect for your own intelligence. Do not read this book unless someone is forcing you at gunpoint. It's not that I hate classics. Right now I'm reading Paradise Lost, which is wonderful. I read all the time and it is my favorite thing to do. It's just that I hated THIS book. It took so long to read and I hated the characters' attitudes: Every time you see a wild animal, capture it! Shoot it! Take it home and tame it as a pet. Yes, they had a whole zoo of tamed animals--monkeys, ostriches, buffalo, zebras and many more. The book is nothing like the movie. There are no pirates and in fact, no adventure at all. Every chapter seems to end with something like, "And so we commended ourselves to God and went to sleep." Plus, are we supposed to believe that tigers, anacondas, ostriches and buffalo live on the same island? I think the thing I hated most was that everything seemed so easy. People describe this as a survival story, but there was never any danger. Right from the start everything the family wanted was provided for. They came on a colony ship so they had farm animals (which somehow survived even though no other humans did). They had gunpowder, cooking pots and utensils, and I think even furniture. Every wild food was good to eat. When they made bread out of manioc it turned golden brown and smelled wonderful. (I have tasted it and it is horrible.) Acorns taste like "excellent chestnuts". (Eating real acorns causes kidney damage and they are bitter.) They ended up making about 4 different houses and living like a rich European family. The author obviously knew nothing about real tropical islands or survival. Perhaps that was acceptable at the time it was written, but it doesn't work nowadays. PS. I am talking about the unabridged version of this book. The abridged version is likely to be just as bad, so don't buy it either. I am 14.

This book is one of my favorites, but only beacause of the story line. I love the idea of a family ship-wrecked on a desert island with no hope of rescue. But it is rather long and all the adventures get kind of old.

This is not a childrens classic! It is boring. At page 26 I was confused. I read it for A/R (accellerated reading) resons. The movie is much better, and reccomend that you watch it instead of reading the book.