One morning Tyler MacCauley's father wakes up next to a dead man, gathers his family, and flees New York. For the next five and a half years, the MacCauleys see few people who don't call the Florida swamp home. Then, in 1906, within days of each other, two strangers show up at the MacCauley settlement on Lostman's River. The first offers Tyler's father a job killing birds for their plumes and alligators for their hides, and is turned away. The second asks thirteen-year-old Ty to be his guide through the area, on what he calls a scientific expedition. For three dollars a day, enough to ease his family's poverty, Ty agrees to accompany the "strange little man." The expedition sets in motion a series of events that make Ty question his own values, wonder about degrees of treachery, and worry about the future of the place he has grown to love. And it forces the MacCauleys to confront their greatest fear...
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-In 1906, the destruction of the Florida everglades was just beginning, and DeFelice has used this historical setting to give perspective to the troubling ecological situations that are of concern today. Hiding from the New York law for five years in the Florida swamps, Tyler and his parents have survived through strength and love. The respect that they, and the Seminole Indians who live nearby, have for the plants and animals that share their environment contrasts starkly with those who venture into the Everglades for profit. The family is cautious and distrustful of strangers, but when a naturalist who wants to document the flora and fauna appears, they decide to trust him, and the boy is hired out as his guide. The first day out, he is horrified to discover that Mr. Strawbridge plans to kill the birds he finds rather than photograph them, and even more disturbed at his own ability to break a friend's trust and lead the man to a hidden rookery. On the second day, the scientist is coldly murdered by plume hunters, and Tyler must rely on his instincts to survive. The dark and forbidding cover will attract even reluctant readers to this story, but the sense of danger is not sustained, for Tyler is never discovered by the killers, or ever very far from home. The book will appeal more to "green kids" than to those looking for adventure. They'll be pulled in not by tension but by the authentic atmosphere, thick with wild creatures and plants, and the desperate cries of hundreds of orphaned baby birds that will ring in their ears as a reminder of what humans are capable of doing in the name of progress.
Susan Oliver, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Susan Oliver, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 5-7. In 1906, 13-year-old Tyler MacCauley has come to enjoy his simple life in the mosquito-ridden Everglades, especially the beauty and wildness of the egrets, herons, flamingos, ibis, and alligators that make their home there. The family lives close to poverty, having been on the lam ever since his father woke up one day after a drunken stupor next to a corpse in New York City. Rather than face a murder charge, Will McLeod changed his name and fled to a place where no one asks questions. Tyler's Seminole friend teaches him many things about the Everglades and shows him a spectacular rookery, bustling with valuable, multicolored birds. Tyler promises to tell no one. When Hugo M. Strawbridge, an eccentric scientist, later offers Tyler three dollars a day to act as a guide, Tyler feels forced to accept. Little does he anticipate that Strawbridge is just another greedy plume hunter. Strawbridge makes Tyler reveal the secret rookery, pulls out his gun, and starts shooting. The quality of the conflicts in this novel is first-rate--questions of loyalty, honor, trust, value of human life, and environmental concerns focus on the universal struggle between good and evil. What happens to the characters is believable as well as riveting. Once again DeFelice offers an adventure story sure to entertain as well as prod the reader's conscience Deborah Abbott
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
PUMES AND HIDES,
By A Customer
This review is from: Lostman's River (Hardcover)
This book takes us back to the Turn-of-the Century Everglades, where 13-year-old Tyler is growing up in his second home. Although innocent of murder, father has fled from the New York City law to squat in anonymity, barely supporting his family off the swamps of the 10,00 Islands. (This story reminds me somewhat of To Walk the Sky Path, because we witness the clash between the Seminole Indians and white "culture." ) But the biggest conflict arises from Plumers (men who kill off exotic birds for their fancy feathers) and Gator Hide Hunters. Only out for profit with no regard for preservaton of species, these mercenary barbarians will kill any humans who oppose them. And the Auduboners are little better in that they have to kill specimens of rare anaimals to preserve them in museums, before the species becomes extinct! Conservation of the Everglades as a habitat has been a 90-year struggle, so the theme is timely. Tyler is lured into acting as guide to a fancy city type who claims to be a naturalist, but Tyler's Seminole friend is suspicious and regrets that he has confided to Tyler the location of a secret rookery. The "scientific" expedition which hires him to serve as guide and artist turns out to be an elaborate masquerade to shoot the rare birds. This disastrous trip sets in motion a series of events that make Ty question his own values and wonder about the degrees of treachery exhibited by civilized man. Tyler realizes his growing concern for the watery wilderness; he has grown to love his new home and does not want to be a part of its destruction. Some wrestle alligators for sport, but Tyler's famliy wrestles their own conscience as they face their past and consider their future--living in a web of fear and lies. This is a serious book, but one which will appeal to boys who like Survival and Adventure. On the way they, like Tyler, will also discover the Moral adventure as we look into the heart of men and boys. The attentive reader will recognize greed and ! honor, fear and loyalty, suspicion and integrity all coexisting in the human heart.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"it just got boring",
By A Customer
This review is from: Lostman's River (Hardcover)
This book is not bad but after a while whith that expedition it just got boring
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