The Swiss Family Robinson
by Johann David Wyss · first published 1979
58% recommend33% neutral8% critical
Why HN recommends it
Adventure story of a shipwrecked family building a life from scratch, valued for its natural history and practical problem-solving; readers recall it fondly from childhood and it works well for reading with kids.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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What Hacker News says
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…Another book that changed the way I work. Would absolutely recommend it. The Wizard of Oz - Much better than the movie. The 4-Hour Workweek - .... It was "okay". I don't know. I'm still torn. The Swiss Family Robinson - Awesome book, full of fun things to talk about with your kids. The BFG - This was the start of the Roald Dahl stage for bedtime reading.. It's a great book, one of my favorite Dahl books. Matilda…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗…of the Macintosh - the computer that changed everything by Steven Levy Manual of the Warrior of Light by Paulo Coelho. Every book written by Jules Verne, especially 20000 leagues under the sea. The Swiss Family Robinson.
on “Ask HN/YC: Please suggest me some good books I can gift a 8 year kid” ↗…information. Obviously fiction does include made up stuff; but some of the best fiction is actually well researched. Some examples: - Dan Brown novels are full of real history, geography and so forth. - Swiss Family Robinson has lots of natural history (one of my favourite books actually) - Tom Clancy novels will teach you an awful lot about the military and military hardware etc. It might not be specialist information,…
on “Why I read fiction” ↗The Swiss Family Robinson. A children's book, about a family that has no other option but to become makers.
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗…like the type of Sci-Fi / Adventure Story where the protagonist engineers and builds their own world from scratch (or almost) - see My Side of the Mountain [1], The Game [2], [Conrad Stargard series][3], Swiss Family Robinson, Robinson Crusoe, etc, etc . So I really liked the first book in the Safehold Series [4] and I put up with the atrocious names (Zhasphar Clyntyn?!?!?) and the insipid, trite and self-congratulatory characters,…
on “Science-fictional shibboleths” ↗Good points and analogy :) The last paragraph reminds me of novels like The Swiss Family Robinson and Robinson Crusoe, which were fun reading while growing up.
on “How the vegan food trend made a star of the stinking jackfruit” ↗>It may be a fantasy wrought by the ending of Robinson Crusoe (which bugged me that he didn't make a sequel) But check out The Swiss Family Robinson. Read both Crusoe and the latter as a kid.
on “Ask HN: Have You Tried Homesteading?” ↗So did, and do, many others, past and present (both wish and lived). We can create our own such society. Wanna sign up? Refs: Robinson Crusoe (book). The Swiss Family Robinson (book). I read both of them as a kid. The USA (country).
on “Silicon Valley is pricing academics out of AI research” ↗In the mid-19th century, an author named Lucy Aikin (using the pen name Mary Godolphin) wrote a number of children's novels using words of just one syllable, including versions of "Robin Crusoe" and "Swiss Family Robinson". Every word, save for proper names, had only one syllable. http://collectingchildrensbooks.blogspot.com/2008/04/monosyl... For those interested in taking this challenge, here's a list of over 6000…
on “Why Clarence Thomas Uses Simple Words in His Opinions” ↗…handling yourself and others. Set in the context of a sea voyage from Hawaii, to find a remote, uncharted island where ancient Polynesian navigators go to die. Is a bit like "Robinson Crusoe" or "The Swiss Family Robinson", after they find the island, with some masala (to use an Indian term) thrown in :-) Masala: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_(film_genre) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56966.The_Navigator…
on “The Best Books I Read in 2013” ↗Lucy Aikin was an 19th century author who wrote novels using single-syllable words, including versions of Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Aikin
on “Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English” ↗According to the author, the second grader is into Swiss Family Robinson, the 4-year-old likes "Frozen and Make it Funny," and the 2-year-old likes the pictures on "Goodnight Moon." Let's fact-check that.
on “I was shocked: my husband was using AI to write our children's bedtime stories” ↗…they grow. Reading young is very empowering. My parents taught me to read before I went to school. Reading to very younger children helps them understand the concept of stories. (I read a chapter of Swiss Family Robinson to the kids when the oldest was like 6. Hint: some editing and commentary is required - it was written in a different age.) There are also schools with good teachers, and ones with crap teachers. Sometimes…
on “Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun” ↗Some classics were written with a "per word" payment scheme to the author. That created bad writing in awkward places. The Swiss family Robinson is an example of this. Times of interesting adventure and then long passages about poetry analysis. Ironically, reading it feels like you are reading the works of an author with a low attention span.…
on “Librarians are dangerous” ↗…yet where did it come from? What motivated our desires for the tree houses? Now we have some answers, they are surprising to me. I guess for myself I did get the idea from reading children's books, The Swiss Family Robinson anyone?
on “The Tree House: A voyage to the source of a backyard dream” ↗