The Incredible Journey

This was a favorite of mine when I was a child, and the girls and I loved reading this 1961 classic aloud this summer. The book tells about, well, the incredible journey of two dogs and a cat who cross several hundred miles of Canadian wilderness to reunite with their family. The book describes the quirks and personalities of the animals; their strengths, their weaknesses, foibles, bravery, and goofiness, without "telling" the story in the first person, or taking the cute path and contriving personification. Their tale of survival, possible only by the loyalty and love they show each other is deeply moving. The rugged and wild Canadian wilderness could well be a character also -- Burnford's descriptions are breathtaking. As with a few show more of our read alouds recently, I choked through the last few pages in tears. A wonderful, heartwarming read.

Burnford, S. E., & Shimizu, M. (1963). The incredible journey. London: Hodder & Stoughton. show less

3.5 stars

When their owners leave for months, two dogs and a cat are boarded with a friend many miles away, but when that person leaves for a few days, the pets (after a mixup with the people meant to care for them for those few days) head out to find their way to their owners’ home through the wilderness in Ontario. One of the dogs is older, one younger, but they all have bumps and bruises along the way and sometimes come close to death as the three do their best to survive and take care of each other as they encounter water to swim across, various humans (most who help), and various wildlife.

I enjoyed this. It was quick to read. I do suspect the author had pets herself as many of the descriptions of the animals seemed pretty true to show more life. Despite this being a Canadian “classic” (I think), I’ve never read it before, nor have I seen any of the movies. show less

• 148 pages
• Fiction

2 dogs, Bodger and Luath, and a Siamese cat, named Tao, are the beloved pets of a young family in Canada who leave the pets with a friend 250 miles from their home. Though cared for by the friend, they long for their true masters and set off on the incredible 250-mile journey home. Through many terrifying adventures and several rescues from kind people along the way, they finally arrive home.

Well-written in 3rd person with little dialogue. An enjoyable book with exciting scenes, but today’s young readers may wish for more dialogue and character development of human beings.

One caveat is that there are several scenes with detailed, gory descriptions, e.g., the cat’s eating another animal in the food chain, show more the death of an animal that tries to kill the trio, and cruelty to the animals by a person they encountered. show less

I figure, like a lot of 90s kids, I saw the movie Homeward Bound somewhere in the vicinity of a million times. I hadn't realized it was based off of a book (or a remake of another movie, for that matter), and I wish I'd read the book as a child. At this point the movie is a little too ingrained, and I don't know how unbiased I can be. Where are the Don Ameche, Sally Field, and Michael J. Fox voiceovers?

I don't think I can truly consider this book on its own without looking at the differences from the movie. It's unfair, but here goes. There's certainly very little light-heartedness here. The plot gets pretty dark and somewhat gruesome at times. Probably more of an honest look at survival, I imagine. (Though I didn't think it was show more particularly fair that the trio can kill animals for food, as can the humans, but a lynx is "evil" if it tries to.)

I also had a hard time developing an attachment for the three main animals at first. There's no real rapport built before they take off on their journey, so their adventures start without being invested in their safety. I actually had some disdain for Bodger at first (here he's the old Bull Terrier), though that did vanish entirely by the end of the book. And I'm still fairly indifferent toward Luath (the young Labrador).

However, the cat (in this, a male Siamese named Tao) made up for every qualm I had. He was SUCH a badass and WAY better than the movie version. I have no idea how the prissy Sassy was spawned from Tao, but, for me, Tao stole the show. What a pleasant surprise. show less

Another children's classic I never bothered reading when I was a kid because I was too busy reading and sorting all the comic books I could find.

Two dogs and a cat in a pet-sitting situation decide to hit the road for their real home, hundreds of miles away through a rugged wilderness with wild predators and other dangers.

It's not bad at times, but I mostly found myself bored.

Also, speaking as a dog person, it felt weird to realize the cat was the most interesting character. Eek.

I can remember my anxiety as a child when I read this book. It really captured my imagination. I was worried by the dangers these three met in their journey. I was so glad that everything worked out alright. It brought tears to my eyes when I reread it as an adult. I'm looking forward to my book group discussing it.

A classic children's book - or is it? Sheila Burnford (1918-84) has said she never wrote it to be a children's book, and indeed it's written in a very realistic manner - no talking animals here. The main theme is loyalty - pet loyalty to their masters, to one another, and human loyalty to animals. It's all very saccharin sweet. A more believable story would have shown the animals internal struggle between returning to the wild (going feral), versus the safety and comforts of remaining captive under human care (one of the great themes of literature). Alas, Burnford is not that kind of writer, and anyway Jack London did it best in The Call of the Wild. Interestingly though, Burnford did adopt London's technique of describing the dogs show more actions and mannerisms as a third party observer, and not delve into the animals thoughts (such as in Black Beauty). The more I think about it, the more London's influence seems apparent, Burnford is sort of like London's better half (who was somewhat dark). For what it is, the story is appealing, love conquers all, it was Burnford's most famous work and spawned at least 2 well known movie adaptations.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd show less