The Swiss Family Robinson
written by Johann David Wyss
352 pages // published in 1812 // classic adventure
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Shipwrecked passengers on a deserted island: how will they survive? After their ship founders at sea, the Robinsons—father, mother, and four sons—find themselves stranded in an uninhabited, idyllic land. Young readers will enjoy watching them handle every crisis with cleverness and skill.
Shipwrecked passengers on a deserted island: how will they survive? After their ship founders at sea, the Robinsons—father, mother, and four sons—find themselves stranded in an uninhabited, idyllic land. Young readers will enjoy watching them handle every crisis with cleverness and skill.
This shipwreck story covers it all! There's adventure and wild schemes, combined with an all-encompassing feeling of family love. Each person in the Robinson family always has a project to work on, usually something that is for the betterment of the whole family. They keep busy, are never slack, care for their animals well... the father often shares knowledge with the youngsters, and... they just keep surviving, together, with no outside help except through God's grace.
I think every Christian family should have this book in their home. (Oh, and homeschool families too will eat this up.) There are so many spiritual lessons to be gleaned from this pages. The Robinson family is always praying and thanking for so many things. In fact, their faith leads them to lead such happy lives on an isolated island... they can even discover joy in the fact that God sent a storm their way and knocked their boat off course.
As a reader, I learned much about animals, plants, and other scientific things of nature. The father (also a professor, or rather a walking encyclopedia) had so much wisdom to impart at just the right times. He is an ever-patient man and knows how to teach his children in the right way, and also knows when to step back and let nature teach his children.
Violence? Yes. There are many, many, many instances of descriptions of animals being killed for food or other needs. Usually it's not too gory, although there was a time or two it was feeling a bit too much for a children's story.
One of the best classics out there for readers of any age, young or old. It's especially perfect as a read-aloud for the whole family. The story does feature 4 boys, and so probably boy readers will get a kick out of all the constant adventure, but girls would certainly enjoy it too (I did!).
Definitely it's a book to spark one's imagination.
This is book #6 for me in the Back to the Classics 2018 challenge.
[CATEGORY: Children's Classic]
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I'd like to read this some time - maybe for next year's classics challenge. Thanks for your review!
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