We finally finished up Swallows and Amazons a couple weeks back. I'm not sure how long it took us to read it, I know it really stretched out. It was the kind of book that was best savored at a leisurely pace, though. We read it a chapter at a time at bedtimes and it was always satisfying. Each chapter was so thick with sophisticated language and pure good old-fashioned kid adventure that we always agreed to let the the story "sit" at just one chapter a night. I think we all got a chance to really get to know the characters that way, and to savor the storyline.
In this first book of Arthur Ransome's series about childhood adventure and imagination, we were introduced to the Swallows, a family of children on vacation who are set free with a small sailboat to camp on an island near their summer retreat home. They soon encounter and befriend the Amazons who are two sisters also with their own sailboat. The land of imagination they then share is the focus of the book. The appeal of the fun the children have comes not from it being extraordinary in any way, rather it is the fact that this fun is so real. Their games and their plans are so absolutely child-like and beautifully true, that you cannot help but be carried back to your own childhood memories of friends, forts and make-believe. That time in your life when anything seemed possible.
Enchanting. Charming. Joyful. Just some of the words I would use to describe this book. Now the boys want me to buy the next book in the series. Especially Will. I think he loved this book the most.
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