Armstrong Sperry (1897–1976)

I remember reading this book years ago for school. Our copy doesn’t have a particularly inspiring cover, so I wasn’t sure if I would like it or not, but as soon as I got into it, I realized the cover was misleading. I loved it!

More recently, when my siblings wanted me to read a book to them one day, we chose this one…and ended up finishing it the same day. This is a gripping read! I love the way it showcases history and how people lived in the past, while also illustrating what it show more means to be courageous and push yourself outside your comfort zone.

This isn’t an easy story, in some ways—Mafatu faced some very difficult circumstances, and then there are (vague) allusions to horrific worship practices that were not uncommon back then. There are also quite a few mentions of Polynesian gods, as this book is based on a legend that was formed long before any Christian missionaries got to the area.

Overall, though, it’s a great book. It has become a family favorite, one of those books that if someone mentions the title, everyone’s eyes light up. “Yes, that one!”. In my opinion, everyone should read this at least once in their lives. It’s a short, sharp, impactful story, and I’m grateful my mom introduced me to it when I was a child. show less

I had read this title a few years ago & refreshed it in my mind with the book on CD. It is an effective fable, set in a mythical Polynesia with the 10-year-old Mafatu at its center. The elevated language and the brief simplicity of this moral tale makes for an inspiring, old-fashioned good read for a variety of readers. Any reader might enjoy the excitement of this coming-of-age adventure wherein the young protagonist, frightened of the sea since it took his mother years ago, braves the show more elements, survives near starvation, thirst, solitude alleviated only by his beloved dog & a tame albatross. He learns to rely on the “womanly” skills he developed while ostracized, as well as patiently taking charge of his means of escape by whetting stone into knives & using them to build a canoe & make a mast and sail, and eventually returning home with a necklace of boar’s teeth emphasizing his apparent triumph.

Because of its age, the book employs outdated conventions like the simplistic portrayal of a complex cultures as Rousseauian noble savages or as bloodthirsty black savages.

Nonetheless, I was just thinking that I needed to start reading my way through the Newbery winners of the past and am pleased to see that this is the one from 1941. show less

Very rich story. Interesting descriptions of making the materials of a Polynesian life - weapons, tools, canoe, cloth, fire... The story is very simple, and the end is pretty much obvious from the start - though I wasn't sure the dog would make it through. Nice, and interesting. I may want to reread it sometime - though it's a very thin book, wouldn't be hard to memorize even.

Mafatu grows up on the Polynesian island of Hakaeru, where the people worship courage. The only problem, is he's a huge scaredy-cat of the ocean ever since he and his mother went out in a boat and she died in a storm while bringing him to safety. Sick of the jeers of the others, he runs off in a canoe determined to find his courage.

This slight novel is told as a fable and survival story. The noble savage and cannibals, the moralistic pat-me-on-the-head narrator were irritating to me as an show more adult, 21st-century reader, though I realize both were of its time (and, in fact, in portrayal of another culture a bit ahead of its time). I'm not a huge reader of survival narratives, and as an adult it was really clear to me that Mafatu really was brave, he just had to find it out for himself. So this was just an okay read for me. show less