Swallows and Amazons
by Arthur Michell Ransome · first published 1930
17% recommend83% neutral
This is one of the finest books for children, both boys and girls. In 1928, four children, aged 7 to 12 (?), whose father is in the navy, vacation with their mother and baby sister on a lake in the north of England. They borrow a 13' sailboat (the Swallow) from the farmer with whom they are staying, and camp on an island in the lake. They meet two girls (the Amazons), about the same age, and have realistic adventures together. The first in a series of twelve books, maybe the best kids' books ever written.
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Swallows and Amazons is on the list? My favorite book; when I was a kid I read Czech translation published in 1930s, so I shouldn't be that surprised it's entering public domain.
on “What will enter the public domain in 2026?” ↗The Swallows and Amazons series is wonderful! Highly recommended.
on “Happy Public Domain Day 2026” ↗…private school, complete with boarders and "houses" and so on. It really was like that in the 30s (see Roald Dahl's Boy, for another example, or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalky_%26_Co.). I think Swallows and Amazons is a little stretched from what would have been normal levels of parental contact, but not beyond what a reader of the time would have considered normal or reasonable.
on “Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it” ↗Another famous childrens' author, Arthur Ransome (of 'Swallows and Amazons'), and a contemporary of Dahl, was at one time a British agent in revolutionary Russia! He even found himself inadvertently involved in the formation of the Red Army; during his subsequent escape from…
on “Roald Dahl – the storyteller as benevolent sadist (2010)” ↗There wasn't easy hover text or other way to reveal what's coming "this month" on their advent calendar. So spoilers for the impatient: 1 William Faulkner – As I Lay Dying 2 Arthur Ransome – Swallows and Amazons 3 Albert Einstein 4 Nan Shepherd – The Weatherhouse 5 Langston Hughes – Not Without Laughter 6 Wallace Stevens 7 Hermann Hesse – Narcissus and Goldmund 8 All Quiet on the Western Front…
on “What will enter the public domain in 2026?” ↗77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
My parents read to my brother and I up until I left home at 18. By then it was more so that we didn't all (parents included) squabble about who got to read the new books first. My dad read the Swallows and Amazons series to us, then a bit later the Hornblower series, also the Redwall series, the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings, Treasure Island, Kidnapped, a few Dickens, Robinson Crusoe, all Narnia, possibly a couple…
on “Reading Aloud to Young Children Has Benefits for Behavior and Attention” ↗> the Swallows and Amazons series Wait, that was a series? I vividly remember reading that book growing up, but I never knew there were more. I know what I'm going to be reading this summer!
on “Reading Aloud to Young Children Has Benefits for Behavior and Attention” ↗I only knew about non-computer semaphores from the Swallows and Amazons books (which are from the 1930s and 1940s). If my mom hadn't read those books to me as a child, I don't know that I'd have come across the concept. "Token ring" is something I learned in networking,…
on “Semaphore: A Full-Body Keyboard” ↗"Better drowned than duffers, if not duffers wont drown". A rather British statement from From Swallows and Amazons; a famous children's novel in which a group of children are let loose sailing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swallows_and_Amazons
on “Dangerous Playgrounds of the 1970s: Photos That Prove Safety Wasn't a Priority” ↗…months old. Now, I read little books to her all the time prior to that too, but we read novels. The first book was the Hobbit, and then we read all the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, then we read Swallows and Amazons, and then we read a number of Discworld novels. A few pages a night, a chapter, whatever. She enjoyed it. Now she is 2 and she reads for fun. She doesn't "read" read, but she can recognize letters,…
on “How and Why I Taught My Toddler to Read (2010)” ↗…but she seemed to enjoy it. The only one she asked me to stop reading to her was "The Borrowers" by Mary Norton. The only thing where she preferred the animation over the book. Right now, we're reading Swallows and Amazons. She also enjoys reading a lot by herself. Her latest craze was Astrid Lingdren and right now, she's reading Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH. My son, who's 5 now and can't read fluently yet, enjoys…
on “Reading Aloud to Young Children Has Benefits for Behavior and Attention” ↗