Customer Reviews

I Saw Three Ships (Knight Books)

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I love this book! Although I'm 42 and my child will no longer sit with me to read it, I read it every Christmas. This is a charming Christmas story from a simpler time. It's little Polly's first Christmas since her parents died. She's living with her aunts now in an old English seaport town and having a little trouble adjusting. Goudge tells a story that will remind you to notice every-day miracles and the ways in which children can keep us all young. The reading level makes it appropriate for children comfortable with chapter books, or for reading out loud over a few nights before Christmas to settle the younger kids down. Please note that I did not buy my copy on Amazon, so I can't speak to the editions it is selling. In fact, I can't remember how my copy came to me, but I am trying to find copies to share with my young neices. P.S. If you want to know what a "sugar mouse" is, try looking at a shop that imports British gourmet items. We did!

For my first Elizbeth Goudge book, I was DELIGHTED to read about Polly and her enduring love,unsurpassed optimism and inspite of obvious obstacles, she retained her faith & persistance. EG touches on romance, love (Tip), delight, humility, faith in God, questioning of faith in God and the strength of the human spirit (a gift from God). Polly is surrounded by friends & family who doubt her faith and dreams. Finally, her Aunt Olivia demonstrates true strength of courage and dignity with her legacy for Polly & Tip.

Make this a "MUST READ" for your elementary/jr high children and a MUST READ at each season for the celebration of the birth (Christmas) of the only person to split time - Jesus the Christ.

A Goudge Christmas Gem
Do you take Christmas seriously?
Do you help celebrate Christmas each year by revisiting a great Christmas classic story (other than the story of the Nativity, itself)?
Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors".
Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life".
"The Bishop's Wife"
Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".
Graeme's chapter "Dulce Domum" in "Wind in the Willows".
Godden's "Holly and Ivy".
If any of these ring your chimes, consider Elizabeth Goudge's beautiful children's novella, "I Saw Three Ships".

(Incidentally, the illustrations, in some editions, by Richard Kennedy, are splendid, although more like modern sketches than period etchings, or the kind of timeless illustrations some Goudge books have, by the great Walter Hodges.)

Imagine Jane Austen had written a Christmas story.
It is set in a little fishing village in the West Country, Cornwall, perhaps, around 1790.
A young orphan girl, Polly, lives with her two timid maiden aunts, Dorcas and Constantia Flowerdew.
(For protection they prominently hang a MAN's hat on the hat-rack in the hall, to give the impression that they are not defenceless women. This is a deeply funny book!)
Christmas fast approaches.
Polly wants to leave the front door open on Christmas Eve -- "The Wise Men might come" ·this was before "Santa Claus" or "Father Christmas" became the gift-giving Christmas Eve tradition in England.
The old one-legged one-eyed homeless beggar-man tramp (a former drummer boy in the army), known as Rags-and-Bones (in Britain, "rag and bone men" were itinerant scrap collectors and dealers), wanders by.
A mysterious sea-faring man arrives in town.
The Mad Frenchman haunts the dock, grieving for his wife and child who were lost to him when he fled the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror and the guillotine.

On Christmas Eve the whole town is poised for the miraculous events of Christmas.
Three men -- "wise men" -- visit the old ladies' house. The youngest man has a loaded pistol, just in case.

Christmas Day arrives, and with the dawn three small ships sail into harbour.
It's a mystery!

There are such happy endings in this story you will finish the book in tears. (I just did, re-reading details to complete the review!)
Goudge is like that sometimes: perfect sentiment, perfect story-telling!
John Gough -- Deakin University -- JAGough49@gmail.com