Swift Rivers (The Newbery Honor Roll) [Paperback]

Cornelia Meigs (Author), Forrest W. Orr (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Series: The Newbery Honor Roll

Barred from his family home- stead by his mean-spirited uncle, eighteen-year-old Chris weathers a Minnesota winter in a small cabin with his grandfather. Poverty and the tempting stories of a wandering Easterner convince Chris to harvest the trees on his grandfather’s land and float the logs down the spring floodwaters of the Mississippi to the lumber mills in Saint Louis. Filled with stories of raft hands and river pilots, this fast-paced novel has all the momentum of the great Mississippi.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Cornelia Meigs was a prolific children’s book author who began her career in 1915 and continued to write into the 1970s. She won the Newbery Medal in 1934 for Invincible Louisa, her biography of Louisa May Alcott. She lived in Havre de Grace, Maryland, at the time of her death in 1973.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 269 pages
• Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers (May 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802774199
• ISBN-13: 978-0802774194
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,560,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting, May 5, 2004

By 

Cathy K (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Swift Rivers (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Newbery Honor Roll 500) (School & Library Binding)

This book is not only a fast paced adventure, but a picture of a simpler time. It is a glimpse into an era in which, despite its rougher nature, dishonesty and criminality were relatively rare--at least in the circles the main character lives/travels in. I also found it refreshing the things (small and large) those in that time would do for someone else without expecting anything in return.

The book has picturesque language, fast-paced adventure and interesting characters. It also has a certain amount of sentimentality.

I read it with my 10-year-old son as part of the Sonlight Curriculum. It was used as a read aloud, not a reader. I concur with another reviewer that more would be gained from a child several years older than by a 9 year old, if read independently.

My son enjoyed it and got some things out of it, and I got even more out of it. Although it is technically a "children's book", it could also be read by, and hold the interest of, an adult.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a good read, albeit dated, October 11, 2003

By 

Peggy L. Duthie "pduthie" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Swift Rivers (The Newbery Honor Roll) (Paperback)

The book shows its age (originally published in 1932) particularly in its assorted generalizations about Indians, as well the inclusion of an unnecessary and unbelievable tangent to tie the story to then-President Andrew Jackson. Still, I found the book worth reading for Meigs' engrossingly detailed descriptions of logging on the Mississippi, for the story (likable but far from saintly protagonists) and for its themes of perserverance and devotion.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not that bad, February 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Swift Rivers (The Newbery Honor Roll) (Paperback)

I read this book some time ago, and while I have no strong emotional impressions of it, the book wasn't that bad. In fact the plot itself was masterfully developed - a true characteristic of Newbery Honor books. But I felt the story was a little difficult to follow and I never attained much interest in Chris, the main character. I'd tell my own nine-year-old to wait a few years before reading this one - it requires a certain amount of patience to get through.