Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (1955)

I liked this book well enough that on a visit to Salem, MA I made my poor mother walk miles just to see his boyhood home. She had an injured knee at the time but she did it for me. And I've got a picture of the house to keep forever. ( )

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Started this as a read-aloud but finished the last half on my own. It's interesting, but slow and technically detailed, but not a whole lot of secondary character development. Reading it on my own was faster and more interesting, and I'll tell my kids about it. I doubt they'll want to finish right now, but maybe someday?

Lots die in this book, and it's abrupt and then they move on.

The math and navigation was interesting. Bowditch was brilliant, and I love that he wanted to teach others on the ship. He knew to be effective and to truly understand something himself, he'd have to explain it clearly so someone else could understand. ( )

This historical novel tells the tale of Nathaniel Bowditch, whose mathematical genius advanced navigation in the early days of the late 18th and early 19th century. The imagined dialogue makes the history read like a true adventure novel. Nat Bowditch is a highly likable character, from his childhood, where the story begins, on into adulthood, ending on his return from a journey as ship captain. The ending was a little anticlimactic, but when you're telling a true story, you're kind of stuck with what really happened. ( )