Customer Reviews

Tom Playfair: Or Making a Start

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been looking for the re-print of this book for more than 20 years in spanish and finally it cames in English in US. These three books (with Percy Winn and Harry Dee) are the best I could read when I was 10 to 14 years old, but they still are excellent books for people of any age and gender. Tom, Percy, Harry, and many others are very real characters and readers of all ages could identify with them. Don't think it twice, buy all of them. And there is another new 4th book available also from Francis Finn, "Claude Lightfoot or How the Problem was Solved"

Tom Playfair,or Making a Start, is probably one of the best books I've ever read. It is a book you start reading and suddenly your hooked,and you can't get away from it. It all happens when a little boy of ten or eleven is sent of to a boarding school called St. Maures. Mr. Playfair or Tom as he likes being called is suddenly one of the most popular kids of the small yard, but because he is not an "old boy" or since this is his first year, he still has one enemy. John Green, or Crazy Green, who is an "old boy" who's favorite thing to do is stand waiting at a doorway to trip new kids on the first day but when he comes to our little hero who had examined the case closely and just watched his friend Harry Quip also an "old boy" walk through the door unharmed. Bravely walked out through the door way, obviously Green tried to trip him, but Tom just kept going and stepped right on Green's foot. Another time Tom who was just warned by Harry that Green was going to put a sign on his back saying kick me I am a fool. Of course Tom had a plan, he and Harry headed down to the handball alley. Harry standing in front was supposed to pull out his hankerchief as a signal that Green's behind him. Harry gave Tom the signal and the plan was in action, Tom quickly asked Harry,"Talking of jumping, hows this," At this remark Tom gave a sharp kick backwards and hit Green so hard that he fell backwards to the ground. Tom turned and apoligized, then he picked up the paper that had dropped from Greens hands read it and asked Green well you got what you wanted, but are you truly a fool? That is all I will tell you about our little hero but, Tom also stars in the books Percy Wynn, or Making a Boy of Him, and Harry Dee, or Working it Out.

Although this is not the best book Ive ever read(maybe because Im a girl) I still couldnt put it down. Tom's character traits are not the hasty outline of a real boy, but suggest in full detail a real,living, all-American boy. Harry, Tom's friend, is impressive, but not as well protrayed. However, "crazy Green" is, I think, the clearest and most real character in the book. He is a mean , boasting bully in the beginning, but as you read on, you begin to sympathize with him and at the part when he-Wait. I never tell the story of the book in my review, so BUY THIS BOOK!!!
Did I mention I'm Catholic? Well this book was written by a priest.
& I am catholic.

I read this book some 50 years ago, when I was leaving childhood. It helped me to imagine a healthy youth and to create dreams. It made me wish to become a Tom Playfair of my own. I lost track of Father Finn's books when I got married and left my parents' house; and all these years I have been looking for the trilogy (I wonder if there are more books) in this series. Now that I found and bought them at Amazon, I mean to read them again. It is a pity that it is now too late for my sons to enter their youths through this amazing gate of reading Father Finn's stories.

I read this book in 1936 or 1937. It was the first book by Father Finn which I read, and it was the first book he had published, in 1891. On page 389 of The Guide to Catholic Literature 1888-1940 it is shown that the book has 255 pages and its selling price was $1,25 and was publshed by Brnziger. The comment thereon is: "Tom is a thorough boy and his life in a Catholic boarding school is narrted in a lively style." The Catholic World in volume 64 at page 605 (Jan 1892) carried a note on the book. I know I was very caught up in the story when I read it--it was a book which we had at home and we did not have many books at our house.. I went on to read 10 more books by Father Finn--all I could lay hands on

I loved these books when I was a child and I got them for my boys, they loved them!
This kind of reading never goes out of fashion, it teaches true values as it entertains, every child should have the chance to read them.