Nathaniel BenchleyReviews

Red Fox wants a big canoe. And when he gets it, he's off to catch a million fish. But Red Fox gets more than he bargained for in his roomy new canoe -- a bear and his buddies, two otters, a raccoon and... soon there won't be any room left for Red Fox!

From Kirkus, 1 June 1981 issue (book's pub. date 7 June 1981):
Another of Benchley's minor, offbeat frolics, this one set in 1906 San Francisco/ Oakland—as the Earthquake brings together, and sort of transforms, five likable misfits. Restless, 32-year-old Henry Walden, Yale grad and ex-Rough-Rider, has just come West to finally settle down at something. Middle-aged banker/speculator Gresham Stoddard has embezzled (and lost) a small fortune, so he's looking for a way to start a new life before the cops come after him. Dolly LaGrange, tough madam of the Upper Tenderloin's classiest brothel, is yearning to pen her memoirs—but she suffers from writer's block. And, over in Oakland, young pharmacist George Bender's extreme approach to contraception—total abstinence—is driving Lucille, his innocent wife of five years, to discreet alcoholism. So, when the quake and fire arrive, these five lives will intertwine: Henry, staying at an Oakland hotel, is rescued from burial-by-debris by George, and the Benders invite him to recuperate at their place (Lucille will nearly seduce Henry, finally stirring jealous George into romantic action); Stoddard ferries over from burning Nob Hill to safer Oakland, taking a new name and also moving in with the hospitable Benders; and suddenly house-less Dolly winds up at the Benders too—but while her girls set up shop in George's quake-ruined store, she is literarily inspired. . . and finds a publisher: the new "Phoenix Books" partnership of Henry Walden and Gresham Stoddard. Don't look for real characters here, or for big laughs, or for convincing period ambience. (The dialogue is a festival of anachronisms, including some vulgar sophomorics.) But as mild, pokey farce—including an Earthquake cameo by a frenetic Enrico Caruso—this does nicely enough, with more than a few moments of wayward whimsy (reminiscent of Preston Sturges) and peculiar charm.
***
I more or less agree with the call-out about anachronisms; but I myownself feel sure that George, not Lucille, wants to seduce studly ex-military muffin Henry and is finally willing to become carnally knowledgable of her to keep Henry for himself. The "vulgar sophomorics" sniffed at above are sexual acts not simply hidden behind discreetly drawn curtains, and some potty humor. I was a grown man in 1981, and not one thing in this book was something I wouldn't've found perfectly okay for my slightly pursey-lipped mother to read.

While I'm not going to urge you off to eBay or Alibris to procure one of these little ditties, I'll just note for the record that six months after it appeared Benchley's liver gave out and he went wherever Bostonians of his age and class went after The Final Curtain.½

Red Fox has a canoe so that he can go fishing. But he wants a bigger one. So he walks through the woods with his father, looking for just the right tree. Together, Red Fox and his father make the new canoe and Red Fox happily goes fishing.

But when Red Fox's canoe is filling up with fish . . . Red Fox has caught half a million fish . . . bear wants to come into the canoe and eat them all. What will happen when Red Fox discovers that his canoe may be a bit too big?

This “I Can Read” book is perfect for beginning readers who are learning to sound out words and sentences. : large print, familiar words, repetitive vocabulary, short sentences, and simple concepts. The target audience is preschool through primary grades, ages four through eight; six through eight, second and third graders are more likely to be able to read with more independence.

Recommended.

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Reread before giving to grandchildren. A decent retelling of the many legends, but only suitable for middle school readers, as there are a few problematic killings..

I like this book for a few reasons. The first is that even though this book is rather short, it still gives some slight character development to the protagonist. This book is set in the time right before the revolutionary war. The boy Sam matures from being a scared boy who doesn't want to go to war to a daring young adult fighting against redcoats. He hasn't fully matured yet though because, in the end, he behaves like a child again and just wishes to sleep off everything. The second reason I like the book is that it is very informational but tells it in a narrative. It talks about the tension between the British and colonists but through the boy’s lenses. He doesn’t like war but is willing to fight the British when he sees that one of his friends gets hurt. It uses onomatopoeia to take the reader to the scene and shows how confusing it was for Sam and his family.
The main idea is that change can be brought on by small events. It takes one act of courage and strength to impact history.
This book is a historical fiction since it happens in the pre-Revolutionary era and the character is not a real person.

This book was interesting. I chose this book because it reminded me about the historical events regarding the Native Americans that I learned in schools. I believe that this book does well in describing how the little Native American boy must have felt when he encounters them for the first time. I would use this in my classroom to share and to introduce the historical event as it does a well with depicting the Native Americans’ life. Therefore, I would share this book with young children, but not including the part where there may be harsh description of the white settlers.

Small Wolf goes to a new village, where he sees a house, a man with a gun and animals that he has never seen. He told his father about it, and he and his father revisits the land, and approaches them. However, they were pointed with a gun. Later they left because they were frightened. Finally, they move out of their village and faces arduous times trying to find their new home because of the White settlers who takes their property.
This story can depict hardships the Native Americans faced when European settlers moved to their new island. Small Wolf's character shows how the Native American boys may have felt during those times. Also, I found the illustrations that portray the settings beautifully, but some did show stereotypes, where some visuals and texts can be inappropriate. For example, the Whites were referred to as the person who looks like a devil. Also, some of the whites are drawn and described as a someone who has a fat jaw and cracks between his teeth. Moreover, it shows gender roles of their culture in the beginning where the mother of the Small Wolf does the housework, and the father does the hunting.

it's about an Indian boy who wants a new canoe because he thinks his is to small... so he asks his father for a new one... the father agrees and they go into the forest to select a tree... Little fox wants the biggest canoe in the world but his father talks him into a medium size one... he goes off to catch fish and hears a noise... a bear who eats all his fish and decides to invite two other bears, two otters, a raccoon and finally a moose who breaks the boat in half.....he pieces the halves back together and sail home... everyone cheers except his father who does not believe a word e says......

Still charming. One of those books that seems simple, as if anyone could have written it, but an experienced author has a deft touch that makes it special. In this case we have a mountain lion watching a wolf watching a fox watching an otter... all thinking about dinner... and a moose, if you can believe it," watching the mountain lion! That's just one of the special little bits, actually.

The Benchley dynasty wrote some damn good books."½

The blurb is not quite right.. Simo, the dolphin, explains that echoes of the past ring forward, and time has less meaning in the sea than on land. In any case, Demo doesn't belong to any particular time, either. As long as men have fished the Mediterranean, and until the dolphins are gone, there are boys who don't do well in school and dream of adventure. Demo sure learns a lot about history, and nature, and even the Greek gods, because of his friendship with Simo. And the reader will, too.

Much better, imo, than the Percy Jackson stories. Here we also explore with the author what it means to be human, by comparing ourselves to intelligent dolphins (and orcas). Dolphins don't understand war, or power. Can you eat power?" On the other hand, they're not empathetic with prey - no matter how valiantly a fish struggles, no matter how beautiful its courage, it's still food. We're not so coldly logical; but we sure are passionate.

At one point I was little confused by the author's message. I don't know if it;s the author speaking, or Demo musing, but we read "Odysseus hadn't seen his home for upward of twenty years. It that was living, there had to be a better answer somewhere." I'm not sure I agree. I think a lot of folks think that home is overrated, that one only truly lives when one is on a quest or risking life & limb. Think of John Muir, Captain Cook, Isabella Bird...

Btw, it's a myth that people used to think the earth was flat. The Greeks even calculated the circumference, hundreds of years BCE, and weren't all that far off.

"Everything is true... It all depends on how you look at it.""

Beautiful. The boy's adventure with the talking animals, as we learn animals' true natures (for example, owls aren't really wise, and mice aren't naturally domestic), is a lot of fun. But the fable of the rabbits' dance of ecstasy makes the story stick with a reader. Yay for discovering Benchley's children's books!

All three Benchleys can write. I did not know any of them wrote children's books, but I found three by N. when scanning the stacks for something else in Winnemucca. Yay for them for picking up, and not culling, less well-known books!

I copied the book-description from the back of the book. I originally thought it described Snip as snappy, because she is.... She's not snippy as in rude... and I don't know why the lady" named her Snip. She's a standard poodle, and joins the beagle Duncan when she's a small pup and he's getting old. That's a wise move - the lady will have a companion to comfort her when Duncan dies, but it won't seem like Snip is a replacement.

Anyway, it is a very sweet story. The two animals have plenty of adventures, because Snip is smart and tall enough to open the door, and Duncan tells her about rabbits, but not enough and so she remains confused, and the two friends visit a circus.... But it's not just fun. As the description implies, it's a bit of a fable. And the pictures are simple, but with a special grace that enriches the text."

Oscar enjoyed playing on the otter slide, slipping and sliding down to the water with his fellow pups. But when the slide is blocked by a tree, he disregards his father's warning and decides to build a new one on the mountainside. This new slide is quite long, extending to the very summit of the mountain, and takes him quite a while to create. When he is finally done, one wintry night, he finds himself pursued by a fox, who is in turn pursued by a wolf, who is pursued by a mountain lion, who is watched by a moose. Will Oscar get back to his lake in time, or will he be caught...?

An early reader that I greatly enjoyed as a child, Oscar Otter was first published in 1966, and is illustrated by the marvelous Arnold Lobel, creator of such classic characters as Frog and Toad. The humor of the tale, in which a series of progressively larger animals follow one another, always appealed to me, and held up on this adult rereading. The moose, in particular, who thinks he's part of a circus parade at first, only to conclude that all of the rest of the animals are crazy, always makes me chuckle. The conclusion of the story, in which Oscar safely reaches home, was always deeply satisfying to me as a child. The artwork, as could be expected from Lobel, is immensely appealing. Recommended to anyone looking for good early readers featuring animal fiction.

I liked this book! First, the illustrations enhanced the story through uses of color and lines. For example, the illustrations only use American colors - red, white, and blue. Also, the lines are dark and used to shade the drawing. Second, the character, George, was well-developed. The author did an excellent job developing the main character and placing him in Revolutionary times. For example, the author writes, "George was a drummer boy with the King's soldiers. They were stationed in Boston. Two hundred years ago, Boston belonged to England." Finally. the message of George The Drummer Boy is the overall teaching of historical events, and also the concept of friendship.

This is a good example of a fantasy because animals can't talk. Animals can't talk and they can't talk to each other, and they wouldn't know how to go about finding a lost animal. It's also a good mystery story.

I think this is a great book for introducing harsh topics such as the hardships Native Americans faced when European settlers moved in on "new land". Small Wolf's character showed readers a good example of how a young Native American boy may have felt when seeing how the Europeans viewed ownership as opposed to his tribe's view of ownership. Personally, I found the illustration to be beautiful but extremely stereotypical, so I don't know if I would necessarily use this book for its visuals when reading aloud to a class of students. All in all, the book brings many historical moments to life in a way that younger minds can grasp without overwhelming them completely.½

Illustrations show a Native American boy who wants a bigger boat to catch more fish in, but it gets too much for him to handle, just like his father, the Chief, warns. This book is funny.

Easy-to-read story (big font and simple words) about Fendall, a mouse treated as a pet by Lonny Stebbins, a young boy. But the most dynamic character is Feldman, Fendall's uncle, who takes Fendall under his wing and teaches him to not only survive but also strive for a transcendental moment.

Feldman has seen a picture of rabbits dancing (standing up in a circle and jumping as high as they can) under the full moon and wants to do the same. SPOILER: He manages to gather a group who do so, and it is wonderful, but (since Lonny is too sick to protect them with his presence) Feldman does not survive the dance. Fendall, who goes off to live as a fieldmouse at the end, wants to dance again.½

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: Snorri was born in North American--more than a thousand years ago. His parents had come there from Greenland with other settlers. Snorri learned to fish, and to hunt. He also asked his parents questions: Where did you come from? Where is Greenland? He wondered what Greenland was like.

One day, while Snorri was looking at the sea, strange men came paddling up. They traded with the Norsemen, and everyone was happy. Then something happened to frighten the strangers. They went away, and they came back ready to fight.

But Snorri did not mind. Because of this, he would have an answer to hie questions about Greenland.

My Review: Very, very 1976, this book. Settlement by Vikings, okay; Native peoples, mean and threatening; instead of the older narrative of white people beating the savages, it's more or less a draw and the white folks run away back to Greenland.

People over a certain age will remember how the news of Norse settlements at L'Anse aux Meadows was very much in the news during the 1960s. Anyone just slightly younger will remember the American Bicentennial of independence from Britain was in 1976. So what could be more natural than to put this story out at that moment in history? And, since it's demonstrably true that there are no Norsemen among the Native Americans, we know only that the L'Anse aux Meadows colonists failed to gain more than a toe-hold here. Benchley imagines, in very 1970s style, that the mean ol' natives scared the wimpy non-English settlers into running away.

Ahhh, the Malaise Years. Even the colors of the so, so 1970s illustrations are Malaise Burnt Orange and black. Grim.



But the reason I got this little marvy was to research a plot point in a book I'm contemplating. Turns out it's perfect for my mooted plot point! Anyway, more on that in 15 or 20 years. But in the meantime, there's nothing that makes me think you need to get this book and read it now, or frankly ever. It's a kids' book that I'd probably never give to my kid due to simple-mindedness and cobweb-thin characters doing nothing worth discussing. I think kids deserve better than that.

There's a reason this is an obscure book I stumbled across while looking into [[Robert Benchley]]'s son and [[Peter Benchley]]'s father.


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Summary: Sam the Minuteman is the story of a boy living at the start of the Revolutionary War. The minutemen in town are called to arms, so he grabs a rifle and goes with his father to attempt to stop the British. His best friend is injured, and he is upset. When the British return, he fights because he is angry about his friend being hurt.

Personal Reaction: I liked the book, but for a level 3 “I can Read” book, I think it might have been a bit mature. My first grader read it, and didn’t have any problems with the vocabulary, but he was a bit taken aback that a “boy” would be grabbing a gun to go and fight against an army! Sam did appear to be older, but he was described as a boy. My son might be a little more sensitive to that idea though, because my husband is in the Army, and he couldn’t imagine “going to work” with Daddy! It is an old (1969) book. The illustrations are not that eye catching. I honestly wouldn’t recommend it for an early elementary student, and students much older than that probably do not want to read “I Can Read” books.

Extension Ideas: The book does tell an important story about the start of the Revolutionary War, and could be used when teaching that era. It would complement a lesson about Paul Revere, and students could come up with a modern day version of Paul Revere’s ride. (For example, he text everyone, drove around in a mustang blowing his horn, etcetera.) They could also write about what they thought it would be like to have British Troops walking through their town.

I liked this book but it seemed very repetitive in some areas and kind of bland. However, it had a great moral to the story, to teach kids to always listen to their parents. The ending ended happily as the otter was grateful to be home after his adventurous day.

A kid named George is bored and has no friends until he stumbles into an abandoned mansion and meets a ghost named Fred.

An "interview" in only the most notional sense, this is actually a frankensteining of various remarks Steinbeck had made in various contexts on subjects more or less related to writing (the extended digression on Hemingway's suicide, which I guess at the time was seen as possibly an accident, maybe stretches it some, although certainly it's interesting). The fact that it holds together so well is perhaps a bit of a backhanded criticism of the aphoristic quality of Steinbeck's writing, which sometimes becomes a kind of portentousness that sounds very weighty and real until you think about it for a second--not that what's there under the affect isn't real, just that it's smaller. He seems to find it hard to write, easy to zero in on tiny matters like the difference in calluses from round and hexagonal pencils; he seems scared that he is in the end a hack and will not be remembered, and to be reminding himself that being remembered is something only a clown cares about. He's a funny neurotic man, and like his novels, there's something embarrassing about this even in all the worthwhile observations--almost too honest. It's an interesting character study, and you go away wishing that the word "middlebrow" had never entered the language and we'd all be a lot less nervous about our mediocrity. As Steinbeck says, in Europe being poor is a misfortune, in America it's shameful. He could extend the same observation to being talentless, even (in his case) to the mere lacking of a talent to bring down the firmament and humble the great.

American Revolution, Thematic Unit, Literature Circle Book - Given it is an Early/Easy or even remedial reader, the simple look issues versus a more in depth examination is probably very appropriate. The languae and sentences are great for this type of book, short and simple with lots of good vocabulary. The illustrations are very helpful in creating context for both comprehension and the decoding of (possibly) unknown words.