Well, he I am, sitting at one of my favourite coffee shops on a blustery and wet winter morning in Melbourne having just finished another book of which I have known the story since I was a little boy but having never actually read the book. I'm sure we all know of the story of Robinson Crusoe, who was shipwrecked while out at sea and ended up spending years (about twenty three of them) alone on an island, forced to make do with what he could scavenge from around him (including off a couple of ships that had become wrecked along the coast). Sure, he eventually finds some company, first with the native whom he rescues and names Friday (because he rescued him on a Friday, but the term has now become a part of our language to basically refer to a gopher – I remember reading job advertisements for positions as a Person Friday), and then a couple of Spaniards, before he is finally rescued by an English merchantman, though he initially has to help the captain wrestle the ship back from some mutineers.

 

I'm not necessarily going to say that this is the first story about a person trapped alone on a desert island – the concept goes back as far as the Ancient Greeks with the story of Odysseus (and one might also suggest The Tempest) however what differs is that Robinson Crusoe is entirely focused on Crusoe's life on the island, where as the earlier works have the island (in the case of The Tempest) as a backdrop, or (as in the case of The Odyssey) as another hurdle that the hero must overcome to reach his ultimate goal (and the protagonist may not actually be alone either). The story of Robinson Crusoe is a story of survival against the odds – not just adapting to a life outside of civilisation, or even trying to create civilisation where there is none, but also surviving the fact that he has been left here alone for so long.

 

The idea has been picked up by numerous stories later on, including Gulliver's Travels, the Mysterious Island, and The Swiss Family Robinson, however, unlike Robinson Crusoe, these stories aren't about a person who has been left alone on the island, and a part of me feels that maybe Dafoe doesn't necessarily understand the true nature of loneliness. The question that I raise is how is it that Crusoe manages to survive for twenty-five years on this island, alone, without either going mad or simply becoming an animal? I guess this is one of the major things that challenged me in the book because I am sure that a human cannot survive mentally, for such long periods, alone without going insane.

 

Okay, I'm not a psychologist, and I don't pretend to be one, nor am I familiar with other stories of people who have lived a bulk of their lives outside of human contact, either willingly or not. Sure, we have the stories of the crazy cat ladies (and we used to live next to one), who would never leave the house, and never answer the door (which raises the question of how they managed to buy food and stuff before the age of the internet and home delivery, though the one we lived next to had a supermarket just across the road, which I have to admit was really convenient). However a part of me feels that for us to maintain our humanity, and not descend into our base animalistic instincts, we need to have human company, and to be able to interact with humanity. This, I have to admit, seemed to be one of the major flaws in an otherwise quite entertaining book (ignoring the fact that the end dragged on for a bit – the fight with the bears and the wolves as they were travelling across France at the end was quite unnecessary, though it probably did work to suggest that travelling in those days, whether it was either by sea, or by land, was always going to be a very dangerous exercise).

 

Oh, before I continue, here is a map of the Island of Robinson Crusoe:

 

 

Interestingly enough there is actually an island off the coast of Chile that is called the Island of Robinson Crusoe, though it was my understanding from the book that the island is actually located in the Carribean Sea, off the North Coast of South America, and the reason I believe that is because Crusoe was ship wrecked while travelling between his plantation in Brazil and the Carribean. However, according the Wikipedia, the reason the island received this name was because it was where the sailor Alexander Selkirk was shipwreck, which some believed inspired Dafoe to write this book, as opposed to being the island that Dafoe selected as the setting of his story (and I am doubtful that Dafoe would have been all that familiar with the Carribean islands in any case).

 

I'm not sure if we can actually consider this book to be because while in some aspects it is an adventure novel (which has been picked up by numerous renditions since its publication, especially when it was turned into a children's book), it doesn't come across as such. Most of the book is basically Crusoe's life on the island, and it is only the last part where the adventure begins. Some have suggested that it is a travelogue, but once again I'm going to have to disagree since a bulk of the action is set on the island.

 

 

Interestingly there is an awful lot of theology in the book, and in a way could be connected to Pilgrim's Progress, but once again I'm going to have to say that I don't believe that it is necessarily a Christian allegory. Dafoe suggested at the end, when Crusoe discovered that his plantation in Brazil ended up doing exceedingly well, and as such there is a relation between Crusoe's adventures and the Biblical book of Job. However time and time again Dafoe suggests that Crusoe lands up on the island because he refused to listen to his father and instead wanted to sail to the seas. Every attempt to makes he comes across misfortune, first a storm off the coast of England, then he is captured by the Moors and enslaved, and finally he lands up on the island for twenty-eight odd years. This isn't the story of Job, but the story of a man who wanted adventure, and got it, and then came to realise that adventure wasn't as exciting that he anticipated – twenty-eight years trapped on an island with a bunch of cannibals as neighbours isn't my idea of a really fun time. Nor do I believe that it is a psychological story, as I have suggested about.

 

 

Yet time and time again Crusoe talks about his puritan (and quite Calvanistic) belief in God. Maybe it is his unwavering belief in God that enables him to survive for so long. He even goes as far as evangelising Friday, yet I note that he never actually leaves the island to become a missionary to his neighbours (viewing them as savages who through their actions are deserving of God's judgement, which isn't really a Christ-like attitude). Sure, in the end he becomes wealthy, but it isn't exactly the type of book that I would consider labelling as either Christian, or Allegory.

 

The final thing that I find interesting is the idea of how he brings civilisation to the island, but then again it is more a story of survival as opposed to the civilising aspect that comes across in books such as Verne's mysterious island. He doesn't actually turn the island into some English utopia, but rather simply does what he needs to survive with what he has at hand. Even then things, such as the crops, and the second shipwreck, simply happen through luck as opposed to any purposeful family, though of course Crusoe (and in turn Dafoe) wouldn't see it as such, suggesting that these events are once again a reminder of God's providence. In the end, though, I'm just going to suggest that it is an adventure.

 

We received this book to give an honest review.

               I love these books and this story is no different. The pictures are done so well and are so colorful they go great with what is being told to us. In this book we get a great lesson through rhyming. You see Bob has a mentor named Mary who along with the other marine life help Bob with accidents that happen. So when Mary gets called away Bob is worried he won't be able to do a good job. He steps up to the plate though and tries his best but soon learns that he will need help and he needs to mentor someone to take on his previous role. It seems that we may get a new character in The Adventures of Blue Ocean Bob. 

K really liked the story and though it was cool to have sharks helping out Bob and the dolphins. The chapters are short and I think it makes for a good book for those maybe in 1st grade to start reading. 

 

Questions and Answers with K.

1. Did you like the book?

"Yes I did"

2. Did you have a favorite part?

"No I liked all of it, but I thought the sharks in the story were cool."

3. Would you recommend this book to your friends?

"Yes I would I think they would like the pictures and how it rhymes."

This was a wonderful book that both my child and I truly enjoyed in more ways than one.

A lot of the times, it seems like once you get past Dr. Seuss books, authors forget the appeal of having a story told in rhyme. Brook Olbrys didn’t forget this, and as a result, Into the Lead, the third book in the Blue Ocean Bob series, was a pleasure to read and to listen to. The wording is simple enough that kids can easily read it to, though mine seemed to just think it was fun to listen to me and point out the words that rhymed.

The illustrations were perfect! Smoothly done with just the perfect amount of whimsy (as in the walrus wearing glasses or the turtle in tweed), the colors were soothing and each illustration added to the story in some way. Kevin Keele did a great job and created some scenes that would be fun as poster art for a child’s room.

Into the Lead isn’t perfect. If I could change anything, it would be diversifying at least one of the characters to make the book more appealing across cultures. It would have been a simple, easy thing to do that wouldn’t have truly affected the story in any way, so it was kind of disappointing that it was another case of white people can solve anything in children’s books. However, Brook Olbrys delivered a nice, positive message in Into the Lead, as Blue Ocean Bob discovers that he can do more than he thought was possible if he can think it, see it, and believe it. Almost as important is the fact that Bob learns it’s okay to ask for help – to hit your limit and be able to acknowledge it.

Overall this was a very good book to read with my child. My kid absolutely loved it and that’s the most important thing. Also, though it’s clearly not the first book in the series, it stands alone enough that you or your child won’t be lost, wondering what’s going on.

I received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Well, here I am sitting at home, on a public holiday, writing a review of a book that I have just finished. Well, maybe I should be out doing something else, but sometimes just sitting at home with a hot cup of tea is just as enjoyable. Anyway, apparently there is a horse race on today, a race that apparently stops a nation. So, while everybody else is gathering around food and joining in office pools to get the chance of maybe winning some money, I am going to continue to sit here, on the second year in a row when I don't have to participate in this national event (seriously, it's a horse race) and actually do something that I enjoy doing. In fact if I don't find out who wins that race (though the Guardian app on my phone will no doubt tell me) it is going to be some knowledge that is simply going to have very little effect upon my life.

 

Anyway, the first thing that I have to say about this version of the book that I read, particularly since I just read another review where the writer suggests that the American cover of a certain book is a lot worse than the original cover (I've noticed that with some books, particularly the Discworld novels – the Kirby covers are so much better than the American covers), is that I found the cover to be rather boring. Basically it is a stone carving of Jason. This cover is so much better:

 

 

 

Though I don't remember any scene in the book where the Argo actually flies.

 

Anyway, I'm sure we are all familiar with the story of Jason and the Argonauts, where Jason is commissioned by the king to sail to the Land of Colchis and steal this golden fleece, so Jason brings together a crew of heroes and makes the perilous journey. Upon arrival he is given some impossible tasks by the king, who then betrays him after Jason successfully completes them, so with the help of the king's daughter Medea they slay the dragon guarding the fleece and then both nick off back to Greece. In fact I remember watching this old 1963 movie in Ancient History in High School based on this story. The one thing that I remember from the movie, other than the pretty cool special effects, was the army of skeletons that came out of the ground whom Jason then fought to the death. However, the one thing that disappointed me is that the movie ended with them sailing off into the sunset – there was no homeward journey.

 

Anyway, one of the things I like about these modern translations of ancient texts are the introductions because they give you a pretty good rundown of the context of the story. However I have to suggest that I found the introduction in this particular edition to be pretty dull. Okay, Rieu did tell us how back in his student days pretty much nobody liked the Argonautica (and my Classics history lecturer also made a similar observation) and the lecturers would use parts of it as unseens confident in knowing that nobody would have read it. Mind you, if I was studying at Oxford back then, and caught on to this practice, one of the first books I would have read would have been the Argonautica (and I'm sure some of the students would have cottoned on to this as well).

 

One of the things we must be aware of though, when approaching these ancient stories, is that the characters simply do not exist in a vacuum. These stories aren't like our modern novels where the characters (generally) have no existence prior to the novel or afterwards, and everything we know about the character exists within the novel. Many of these ancient stories are based on well established mythology, so when an ancient would pick up and read one of these epics they would already have a pretty clear idea of the character that the epic is about. As such many of the authors were pretty restricted in how they would create their epics, and in many cases simply tweaked the characters, or explored certain aspects of their personality.

 

Okay, I would have to say that maybe I have been influenced by the attitudes of many of the scholars when it comes to this book because I would hardly say that it is one of my favourites. However, it is still a rollicking good adventure. In fact this story has everything – heroes, monsters, battles, betrayals, witches, and of course a treasure. What we must remember is that Jason and his crew are little more than pirates. Okay, he is given the task by a king (who in his mind considers this to be an impossible task, namely because he was warned in a dream to beware of the man with one sandal, and the man who happens to rock up at his gates with one sandal is none other than Jason himself – though why the king didn't just kill him is beyond me), but he is still simply travelling to another land with the explicit purpose of raiding it and carrying off its treasure.

 

The thing with the composition of the Argo is that, unlike the Odyssey, the crew are all heroes. Among the crew we encounter Castor and Pollux (or more precisely Polydeuces, though I prefer the name Pollux much better), the musician Orpheus, and of course Heracles. However Heracles does pose a bit of a problem because he is such a famous character that having him as a part of the crew creates the problem that, more likely than not, he is going to steal Jason's thunder. It's sort of like where you cast a minor actor in a leading role, and then have Patrick Stewart in the supporting cast – it generally doesn't work. However the myth deals with this by having the Argonauts accidentally leave Heracles behind near the beginning of the journey (though Apollonius does make a comment about this because it does seem to be a bit odd).

 

The story itself is very episodic, much more so than the Odyssey. On the journey up we have Jason and his crew go through various encounters, including getting waylaid by an island of Amazons who killed off all the men and then realised that they need men to procreate so decided that the Argonauts fit that role perfectly. We also have the story of the man who would sit down to eat only to have the harpies dive from the sky, steal all of his food, and then leave again. We have a similar structure on the return journey, though for a while the Argonauts are being chased by the Cholcians. However, once they hit the Mediterranean we suddenly find them taking a very similar route back to Greece that Homer did.

 

Rieu makes a bit of a comment about this, suggesting that despite the Greeks being very familiar with this region during Apollonius' time, to keep with the mythology of the setting, Apollonius purposely was not very accurate in his descriptions. I'm not really convinced that Apollonius did this on purpose, simply because he was writing about events back in the age of mythology that happened almost two generations prior to Odyssey's travels. Jason isn't following Odysseus, Jason is actually travelling the route prior to Odysseus. Also, what Jason would have encountered as he traversed this route would have been much different to what Apollonius would have seen.

What is interesting is that there are two routes that Jason could have taken, Apollonius's route, and the Orphic route (and considering Orpheus was a member of the crew he probably was much more knowledgeable with the route they took – though it's not as if we have Orpheus' account – the guy is a mythological figure). Anyway, this is the route Apollonius uses:

 

 

 

This is the route attributed to Orpheus (which also includes Apollonius' route):

 

 

 

It is interesting that the Orphic route has them come out in the Baltic Sea and then sail around the coast of Western Europe back to the Mediterranean (and no doubt the Greeks, by the time of Apollonius, had sailed out that far – Herodotus does make mention of somebody circumnavigating Africa). However, it looks as if Apollonius wanted to keep it simple, and by using a similar route to that of Odysseus his readers would have been quite familiar with the area.

 

 

 

 

We received this book to give an honest review.

 

We have read the second book in this series and really enjoyed it but I was curious on how Blue Ocean Bob came to be so I asked the author if I could read book one and he was good with sending me a copy. 

In this story we learn how Ocean Bob became an official assistant to Mary. We get to meet Doc the Turtle, Earl the Clam and Wallace the Walrus. Each animal gives him the wisdom and wise words to complete his journey that Mary Marine gives him. 

Bob knows he has a purpose in life but he doesn't know how to go about finding it so when Mary Marine gives him a test he knows this is it for him. But we see him get discouraged only to encounter Earl and get even more advice and wisdom on what he should do. Will Bob succeed in passing his test? Will he accomplish what he needs to do to find his purpose in life?

The pictures are wonderful and really go with the story, the rhyming within the story being told keeps kids entertained with wording but not bored. 

I really liked the quote " Think of the negative and you will fail. Think of the positive? You'll tag that whale. 

It's the magic word 'attitude,' which, if it's right, will attract all the good that you have in your sight. When you put it together, it's simple but true: Your attitude shapes the world's image of you." 

That is so true and I believe kids need to hear that. There is a lesson within the story though I don't think children know it. 

K enjoyed how Bob went on an adventure and finished his job. He thought a talking Clam and Turtle were very funny. 

This is a great book to have at home and read with your children I would recommend this for ages 7 on up.