Ransome, Arthur Books - Page 2

Pigeon Post (Godine Storyteller)

Arthur Ransome

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A book to fire the imagination of children of all ages 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

In this sixth `S & A' adventure, summer has come once more, and the Swallows are back in the Lake District, together with the two D's, on another holiday with their boating friends, the Amazon pirates. This time, the children desert the lake and take instead to the High Topps, prospecting for gold.

While adult readers will be unable to do other than admire the children's enthusiasm (sufficiently infectious to draw most young readers into it wholesale), they will probably have a feeling of impending disaster from quite early on, in this book. The Amazons' impetuous natures, combined with the others' general inexperience and limited knowledge of mining and its chemistry, lead them all (except, perhaps, the more sensible Susan!) into more scrapes, as well as rather more dangerous situations, than usual.

This leads to a different (but no less absorbing) desire to keep reading this tale than that likely to affect the more naïve younger reader. Both young and old are, nevertheless, likely to spend much of the time on tenterhooks during this book, as the young prospectors explore old mine workings, try their hand at charcoal burning and build and operate a blast furnace in their camp, out on the tinder-dry fells! For once, one can only feel something of a sense of relief that times have changed since 1936, when this was written! One can't help feeling - and being grateful for the fact - that modern children would not be terribly interested in repeating some of the activities undertaken here.

In summary, then, "Pigeon Post" is every bit as exciting (and at times far more nerve-wracking) and educational as the other books in this series: another winner from Arthur Ransome.

Editorial Review:

The crew's on holiday, and they turn their energies to mining for gold, aided by pigeon messengers Homer, Sophocles, and Sappho. The adventurers comb the nearby hills for a fabled lost claim, while being shadowed by a mysterious figure they dub "squashy hat." Undeterred by drought, sudden brushfires, and the continuing presence of Squashy Hat, the young prospectors persevere in their quest - with surprising results. Full of the dangers and dark adventures of old mines and forgotten claims, Pigeon Post has an irresistible appeal to the persistent explorer in every child.


"There is plenty of excitement, a little danger, a quality of thinking, planning and fun in connection with a gold-mine. The ingenuity of this group of children is delightful and stimulating."
The Times Literary Supplement

The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship: A Russian Tale

Arthur Ransome

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

My Favorite Picture Book 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship by Arthur Ransome with illustrations by Uri Shulevitz is easily my favorite picture book. Everything is perfect about the book. First of all the pictures are marvelous. All of Shulevitz's books have good pictures, but this might be his best. The pictures jump off the page with their color and with the humor portrayed in them. The story is, of course, the best part of the book. The story is hilarious with marvelously interesting characters. It also has some good morals like "God loves simple folk." I work in a library, and adults and kids all love this book. I have also seen the book performed for children, and it proved to be excellent for reading aloud. The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship is an amazing picture book and deseves is Caldecott Medal and its classic status.

Editorial Review:

When the Czar proclaims that he will marry his daughter to the man who brings him a flying ship, the Fool of the World sets out to try his luck and meets some unusual companions on the way.

Great Northern?: A Scottish Adventure of Swallows & Amazons

Arthur Ransome

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Superb 5 out of 5 stars.
21 of 22 people found this review helpful.

This book from the 1930s or 40s starts with a group of kids sailing in the Hebrides with Uncle Jim -- the uncle of two of them -- at the end of their cruise. They stop to spend a day taking care of the borrowed boat -- cleaning the bottom and putting on a new coat of bottom paint -- and while the older ones are doing this, the younger ones explore. One of them goes birdwatching, and sees something unusual.

Sounds pretty dull, right? Wrong. Like all the Ransome (non-fantasy) books, the bad-guy in this book -- an egg-collector -- is completely plausible AND horrible. The multiple story lines are all intriguing. The respect for decent behavior (cleaning the bottom of someone else's boat? Making sure to bury a bit of waxed paper from your sandwich...in 1935??? Respecting property ... not disturbing wildlife ... Passing behind a sailboat when you're in a faster motorboat...) isn't drilled in with a ham-handed holier-than-thou-ness; it's just part of what you get when you read the book. You also get a terrific adventure, a fingernail-biting crisis and denoument (remember when denoument was part of a good story?), humor, character, and a feeling of the Hebrides that you just don't forget.

If your kids don't like this book, keep the book and throw the kids in the trash.

Editorial Review:

Finally! Here is the twelfth, and final, book in Arthur Ransome's acclaimed Swallows and Amazons series. People familiar with his earlier work will recognize the pattern: children set out on an adventure (this one off the coast of Scotland) with a minimum of parental advice and interference. Here, the story centers on a desperate race to thwart the efforts of pernicious egg collectors threatening the survival of a pair of rare birds not previously known to nest in British waters (actually, the bird is the handsome North American "Great Northern Diver," more commonly called a loon).

The Firebird and Other Russian Fairy Tales

Arthur Ransome

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Editorial Review:

Choice collection of nine classic tales — gathered by British author on his journeys to Russia in the early twentieth century — tells of magical beasts, daring young men, frightful giants, wicked witches, and beguiling creatures of the sea. A delight for fairy tale fans of all ages.

Old Peter's Russian Tales

Arthur Ransome

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Arthur Mitchell Ransome was a British author and journalist, the son of a Professor of History at Leeds College. He was best known for writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books, which tell of school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads areas of England. The books remain popular to the point that they provide a basis of a tourist industry around Windermere and Coniston Water -- the two lakes that Ransome used as the basis for his fictional North Country lake. He studied chemistry, but quit college to take low-paying jobs as an office assistant in a publishing company and as editor of a failing magazine while writing and becoming a member of the literary scene of London.

In 1914, he covered the Eastern Front in World War I for the radical newspaper, the Daily News. He also covered the Bolshevik Revolution, and became close to Vladamir Lenin and Leon Trotsky.

Old Peter's Russian Tales is a collection of twenty-one Russian folktales drawn from his time in Russia. The tales include "Baba Yaga," the story of the famous witch who lived in a house that walked on chicken feet.

Favorite Russian Fairy Tales (Dover Children's Thrift Classics)

Arthur Ransome

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A lot of "read" for the penny! 5 out of 5 stars.
40 of 40 people found this review helpful.

This is a fine introduction to popular Russian fairy tales, including the story of the little snow girl (a childless couple builds a daughter out of snow) and "Frost" (cruel stepmother sends girl out to freeze in the snow, but Frost sees her kindness and spares her-- the nasty stepsisters are not so lucky). The similarity between some of the Russian tales and our own English fairy tales is interesting (why is the stepmother always the evil one?). This introductory collection leaves one wanting to learn more Russian tales.

Ah, the culture of it 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This is a fantastic collection of stories that have been a part of the Russian culture for centuries. Anyone growing up in Russia has heard these stories, and now so can you! Kids will appreciate the characters and adventures. Parents will appreciate the values and lessons. Everyone will appreciate the timeless tales of fantasy, magic, and talking animals.

Editorial Review:

Six tales of witches, and wizardry, perilous journeys, wise animals, frightful giants and beautiful princesses, among them the legendary Fire-Bird, the dulcimer-playing Sadko, the iron-toothed witch Baba Yaga, and a goat that sneezes gold pieces. Newly reset in large, easy-to-read type, with 6 new illustrations.

Tontimundo Y El Barco Volador (Spanish Edition)

Arthur Ransome

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Editorial Review:

The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship.

Little Daughter of the Snow

Arthur Ransome

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Editorial Review:

Childless and sad, an elderly Russian man and his wife watch the village children playing in the snow. One day they decide to make their own little snow girl. Much to their amazement, her eyes start to shine, her hair turns black, and she comes alive! But, as Little Daughter of the Snow tells them, she isn’t quite like other children: she plays outside all day and night, and eats ice porridge for breakfast. Arthur Ransome’s poignant retelling of the classic Russian fairy tale carries a strong message about the true value of love. Tom Bower’s stylish illustrations update the story for today’s young readers.

Swallowdale

Arthur Ransome

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GREAT NORTHERN? A Swallows and Amazons Book

Arthur Ransome

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This book is fabulous!! You MUST have it!! 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

I am an eleven-year-old girl and I love all of the books in this series. The series starts with Swallows and Amazons, which is one of the best. All of them are about 4 siblings (the Swallows) and their friends (the Amazons). Also introduced in another book are their cousins, Dorthea and Dick. In Great Northern, Dick finds a rare bird's nest. He and his friends watch the birds and study their ways of life. Then a wicked egg collector finds the nest. He steals the eggs to sell to dealers, and trys to get the birds. How will they save the birds?? Find out in Great Northern. Read it today!! It's a must for any book lover.

"Dogmudgeon"'s a Lovely Word. You Can Use It If You Like 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

For the last in the series (sadly so -- and published the year i was born, by a coincidence), Ransome has given us a somewhat different book.

As with "We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea" and unlike most of the rest, virtually all of the action in this book involves real-world situations and problem-solving rather than the often-imaginary (though no-less-fun) adventures that the other books recount.

The plot turns at least partly on the contrast and conflict between the methods used by older-style "naturalists" -- Audobon often shot the birds he painted -- represented by the bird expert on the yacht "Pterodactyl", whose reaction to hearing of a very rare nesting is to find it, take the eggs, shoot the birds and stuff them as a display in a museumand those of the newer generation, represented by Dick Callum (in his strongest, most assertive appearance in the series).

Dick is of the opinion that simple but clear photographs will do Just Fine to document this amazing sighting.

And so begins an adventure that will have three separate problems to solve -- keeping the Egg Collector from finding the birds, getting the photos and -- most importantly -- not running afoul of the local Laird on whose land all of this is going on.

All of the Swallows, Amazons and D's -- and Captain Flint, a full participant for once, rather than just a prop/supporting character -- are here, and all are in full character -- when someone sees Dick fleeing the Egg Collector's yacht after he realises what sort of "naturalist" the man is, they remark "If it were Roger, I'd think he'd said something cheeky," to which Roger replies "Dick would never think of anything in time..."

If it had to be the last, this is a pretty good book for the position.

Read it; read them all. Even adults can enjoy these books.