Amazon.com: Moby Dick: Or, the White Whale (Oxford Illustrated Classics Series) (9780192741561): Herman Melville, Geraldine McCaughrean, Victor G. Ambrus: Books
"There is a whale in the sea, as white as a ghost, and it haunts me. Sometimes, when I'm afloat in sleep, like a drowned sailor, he swims towards me--a nightmare all in white, jaws gaping, and I wake up screaming and salt-water wet with sweat. Somewhere out there in the bottomless oceans lives Moby Dick, a great white winter of a whale, and I shiver still at the thought of him." In vivid and compelling language, the award-winning author Geraldine McCaughrean retells Herman Melville's classic story of the obsessed Captain Ahab and his relentless hunt for the great white whale, Moby Dick. Together with Starbuck, the mate; Queequeg, the harpoonist; the sinister crewman Fedallah; and the innocent narrator, Ishmael, Ahab travels the oceans of the world in pursuit of the elusive monster, braving waves like strips of volcanoes and lightning like the visitation of angels. McCaughrean's text is beautifully complemented by Victor Ambrus's evocative pictures of ships and the sea and of the white monster, Moby Dick, a creature as vast and dangerous as the sea itself. Children and young adults will be thrilled and captivated by this wonderful adventure tale.
"Prose filled with rich, vivid, precise language shapes this retelling of Herman Melville's classic adventure of obsession. Without sacrificing the quality of the original, McCaughrean has created a shortened version of the tale that's filled with intriguing, finely drawn characters and the excitement of a dangerous quest on the high sea.... This is a beautifully cohesive volume that makes a classic tale accessible without diminishing it."--School Library Journal (starred review) "The lush prose rockets the story along like a square rigger under full sail, with all the beauty that entails. Ambrus's ample illustrations are full of character.... For those disposed to retellings of the classics, this is a prime example of the way to do it."--Kirkus Reviews "Melville's story loses none of its punch through McCaughrean's retelling."--Children's Bookwatch "Melville would be satisfied."--The Denver Post
It's 30 years now since I first got published, and 50 since I found out how writing let me step outside my little, everyday world and go wherever I chose - way back in Time, to far distant shores, towards my own, home-made happy ending. Not that all my books are an easy ride. I write adventure, first and foremost, because that's what I enjoyed reading as a child. But since I have published over 150 books now, there are all manner of books in among that number - gorgeously illustated picture books, easy readers, prize winners, teenage books and five adult novels. The White Darkness won the Printz Award in the USA, which, for as Englishwoman, was the most amazing, startling thrill. Then there was Peter Pan in Scarlet - official sequel to J M Barrie's Peter Pan, written on behalf of Great Ormond Street Hopsital for Sick Children. I won the chance to write that in a worldwide competition, and because Peter Pan is loved everywhere, my book sold worldwide too. I can't say I expected that when, as a child, I dreamed of being like my older brother and getting a book published one day. These days I have a husband (who's good at continuity and spelling) and a daughter who is an excellent editor. But she's at the Royal Academy of Dramtic Art now, studying to become an actor. So, naturally, I have turned my hand to writing plays. (So many actors, so few plays!) My Mum told me, "Never boil your cabbages twice, dear," which was her way of saying, "Don't repeat yourself." So I have tried never to write the same book twice. You'll find all my novels quite different from one another. I have also done lots of retellings of myth, legend, folk and fairy tales, and adapted indigestible classics such as El Cid, the Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Moby Dick, Shakespeare and the Pilgrim's Progress. Something for everyone, you see, my dear young, not-so-young, eccentric, middle-of-the-road, poetical, sad, cheerful, timid or reckless reader. All they have in common is that they all contain words. If you are allergic to words, you'd best not open the covers.
5.0 out of 5 starsMoby Dick, by Geraldine McCaughrean, June 12, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Moby Dick: Or, the White Whale (Oxford Illustrated Classics Series) (Hardcover)
Our family enjoyed this book! It is a wonderful way to share a classic with a child. My 8 year old son loved the beautiful language and the illustrations. This book was perfect for younger readers who may not be ready for the full version. There are great moral lessons covered in Moby Dick. Reading this book provided a natural environment to discuss these important charachter traits. It also allowed us to take off with a further study of whales. A great book!
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This review is from: Moby Dick: Or, the White Whale (Oxford Illustrated Classics Series) (Hardcover)
Geraldine McCaughrean does storytelling perfectly and Moby Dick is no exception.
This was a read aloud to a twelve year old boy who absolutely could not wait for bedtime to hear the next installment. Now that our son has met Queequeg, Captain Ahab, Starbuck and Pip in this children's version he will be ready to read Melville's Moby Dick without hesitation.
Her writing is excellent, " He was right. The longer we rowed, the larger the white hump grew. It was vast- larger by far than any monstrous whale. The thing had no face, no mouth. Countless limp tentacles spread from its central core, coiling and twisting, floating and groping the water blindly: a Medusa of sea serpents, a miracle of vileness. If I live to be two hundred, I shall never see a sight so weirdly wonderful, so monumentally monstrous. It had no face, no eyes. It seemed to have no bone or rib or skull, but was one vast pulpy, undulating mass."
This book is one hundred pages of excitement and thrill.
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