A Great book about learning to be brave! ( )

One of my teachers assigned this book back when I was in third grade. It was perfect for zealous child reader. I hadn't ever read a chapter book at the time, which is a big deal when you first start one. But this but made it less intimidating, it was relatively thin and completely captivating. There were a lot of words I didn't know but that was the point. We were assigned to read a chapter at a time and look up five words from the chapter that we didn't know. To this day I remember that I learned words like "pinnacle", "eddies" and "outrigger canoe" reading this book. I'd recommend it to any kid that breezes through picture books or other books with the reading level printed on the cover. ( )

Actor Lou Diamond Phillips provides a dramatic, exciting reading of this 1941 Newbery Award winner that is enhanced with original music composed by Richard DeRosa. Especially effective were the drumbeats in the climax of the book. The combination brings this classic adventure/survival/coming-of-age tale to life.

Mofatu, whose name means “stout heart,” is 15 years old and the son of the chief of Hikueru, a real island in the South Pacific. His mother drowned when Mofatu was three (he survived the hurricane that capsized their canoe), and since then he has been afraid of the ocean. Taunted by his peers and feeling he is an embarrassment to his father, he decides to leave by canoe to test his courage, accompanied only by his dog and (sometimes) a pet albatross. He survives a huge storm on the water, landing on an uninhabited island that’s apparently used occasionally for ritual cannibalism, ultimately escaping from the “eaters of men” when they arrive on the island and returning to his home. He kills a shark, an octopus, and a wild pig. More interesting, to me at least, were the ways he fashioned tools and utensils, a canoe, and tapa cloth, the latter from the inner bark of a mulberry tree.

Author Armstrong Sperry’s observations from his trips in 1920-21 and 1924-25 to French Polynesia are evident in Call It Courage. For example:

"While his breakfast roasted in the coals, the boy cleared the brush away from the base of the great tamanu. There was no wood better for canoe building than this. It was tough, durable, yet buoyant in the water. Mafatu could fell his tree by fire, and burn it out, too. Later he would grind an adze out of basalt for the finished work. The adze would take a long time, but he had made them often in Hikueru and he knew just how to go about it. The boy was beginning to realize that the hours he had spent fashioning utensils were to stand him now in good stead. Nets and knives and sharkline, implements and shell fishhooks—he knew how to make them all. How he hated those tasks in Hikueru! He was quick and clever with his hands, and now he was grateful for the skill which was his."

I liked this book and I think it would appeal to both boys and girls. (I’ve now completed Island of the Blue Dolphins and I much prefer Call It Courage). It may need to be read aloud to younger children (or they can listen to this audiobook), as the reading level measures out to 5th-8th grade. Sperry's granddaughter has put together an excellent website with a lot of resources that could be used in an author, book, and/or Polynesia study.

It’s relatively short (only 95 pages in my university’s 1941 hardbound reprint) with a lot of exciting action, yet there’s much interesting information about South Sea island life of a century ago, plus a valuable message about personal courage. An autobiographical note (written in third person) published in Newbery Medal Books: 1922-1955 (Horn Book, 1955) concludes (page 198), “it is in this book that Armstrong Sperry has put not only what he saw and felt on the islands of the South Seas, but something of his own philosophy of living as well.” I would have to agree.

[A variation of this review appears on my blog, Bookin' It.] ( )

This book was so quick and enjoyable - exactly what an adventure story should be. The action was paced just right and the descriptions were clear. I'm amazed how well this has stood the test of time - kids today could easily read this and love it. The only thing that was missing for me was a takeaway message or thought - a theme. ( )

When I was in elementary school, a librarian did a book talk on Call it Courage, and after all these years I finally picked it up and read it.

It is a compelling read about a boy afraid of the sea, and his efforts to conquer the fear and make his village -- and his father -- proud. So he sets off on a perilous adventure to prove himself, along with his dog and, occasionally, an albatross.

Call it Courage is a Newberry award winner, and it is easy to see why it was chosen. The writing is concise, and immediately captured my attention. I had to finish it in one sitting to find out what happened to Mafatu (the protagonist) and his companions.

Survival stories have often been popular choices for boys and girls alike, and reading Call it Courage has reminded me of other survival stories I have read throughout the years: Island of the Blue Dolphins, Hatchet, and My Side of the Mountain immediately come to mind. These stories demonstrate courage and resourcefulness, and it is fun to read them from the safety of one's home, with ample food, water, and safety! ( )