soph (
sophia_sol) wrote2017-10-07 03:04 pm
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Swallowdale, by Arthur Ransome
Book #2 in the Swallows & Amazons series. I honestly cannot be sure whether I have ever read this book before or not. My childhood library had a very incomplete collection of the series, and I'm no longer certain exactly which ones it did and didn't have. And at the time the library was my only source for these books.
There are some aspects of this book that seem familiar - but is that only because these elements get referred to in later books in the series, or in fanfic I've read? And there are other aspects that seem entirely unfamiliar - but is that only because it's been so long that I've forgotten things? I'm leaning in the direction of thinking I have not read this book before but really WHO KNOWS.
At any rate I do love this book series and Swallowdale is an excellent part of it. The author does a good job of having the children being independent and capable and adventurous while still genuinely making mistakes and getting into scrapes and not being perfect at the things they're doing - but all in a cozy world where nothing is capable of going truly badly. So these books are very comforting sorts of reads. (At least, if you're able to read past the racism. The author is a white dude writing in the 1930's and 40's and includes an unfortunate helping of the sort of casual racism you might expect from that source. Sigh.)
There are some aspects of this book that seem familiar - but is that only because these elements get referred to in later books in the series, or in fanfic I've read? And there are other aspects that seem entirely unfamiliar - but is that only because it's been so long that I've forgotten things? I'm leaning in the direction of thinking I have not read this book before but really WHO KNOWS.
At any rate I do love this book series and Swallowdale is an excellent part of it. The author does a good job of having the children being independent and capable and adventurous while still genuinely making mistakes and getting into scrapes and not being perfect at the things they're doing - but all in a cozy world where nothing is capable of going truly badly. So these books are very comforting sorts of reads. (At least, if you're able to read past the racism. The author is a white dude writing in the 1930's and 40's and includes an unfortunate helping of the sort of casual racism you might expect from that source. Sigh.)