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John Tabor's Ride
John Tabor is shipwrecked on a tropical shore, and longs for his Nantucket home until he meets a salty old man who takes him on an extraordinary journey.
- GenresPicture Books
48 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1966
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About the author
Blair Lent
25 books15 followersBlair Lent was an American author and illustrator of mostly Chinese-themed books, including the popular 1968 children's book Tikki Tikki Tembo. In 1973 he was awarded the Caldecott Medal for his illustrations of The Funny Little Woman, by Arlene Mosel. He also illustrated the book House of Stairs. Lent used a wide range of techniques in his illustrations, including acrylic painting, cardboard cutouts, colored pencil and ink and wash.
Born in Boston, Lent attended the Boston Museum School where he graduated with a degree in art in 1953, after which he went to Italy and Switzerland on a study grant. He worked for the Container Corporation of America designing labels for cans and worked for the Bresnick Advertising Company where he designed bank advertisements.
After receiving positive feedback from a juvenile-books editor at Atlantic Monthly Press, he put out Pistachio, a story published in 1964 about a green cow and a circus that he wrote and illustrated. Under the pen name of Ernest Small, he wrote the 1966 books Baba Yaga about a witch, and John Tabor's Ride, a fanciful yarn about a sailor from New England. Other works written and illustrated by Lent include 1987's Bayberry Bluff, Molasses Flood published in 1992 and his 2000 book Ruby and Fred.
Lent also did illustrations for other authors, some of which became his best-known works, such as the 1964 book The Wave by Margaret Hodges that adapted a story by Lafcadio Hearn, Arlene Mosel's 1968 Chinese folk tale Tikki Tikki Tembo, the 1968 book Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky based on an African folk tale as told by Elphinstone Dayrell, a 1968 retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl and Mosel's 1973 retelling of a Japanese folk tale The Funny Little Woman that won that year's Caldecott Medal. In 1997, Tikki Tikki Tembo was selected by The New York Times on its list of the 50 best children's books of the previous 50 years.
Lent's artwork had been contributed to the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota and the Mazza Museum at the University of Findlay, in Findlay, Ohio.
Lent was a resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts and died at age 79 on January 27, 2009 of pneumonia in Medford, Massachusetts.
Born in Boston, Lent attended the Boston Museum School where he graduated with a degree in art in 1953, after which he went to Italy and Switzerland on a study grant. He worked for the Container Corporation of America designing labels for cans and worked for the Bresnick Advertising Company where he designed bank advertisements.
After receiving positive feedback from a juvenile-books editor at Atlantic Monthly Press, he put out Pistachio, a story published in 1964 about a green cow and a circus that he wrote and illustrated. Under the pen name of Ernest Small, he wrote the 1966 books Baba Yaga about a witch, and John Tabor's Ride, a fanciful yarn about a sailor from New England. Other works written and illustrated by Lent include 1987's Bayberry Bluff, Molasses Flood published in 1992 and his 2000 book Ruby and Fred.
Lent also did illustrations for other authors, some of which became his best-known works, such as the 1964 book The Wave by Margaret Hodges that adapted a story by Lafcadio Hearn, Arlene Mosel's 1968 Chinese folk tale Tikki Tikki Tembo, the 1968 book Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky based on an African folk tale as told by Elphinstone Dayrell, a 1968 retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl and Mosel's 1973 retelling of a Japanese folk tale The Funny Little Woman that won that year's Caldecott Medal. In 1997, Tikki Tikki Tembo was selected by The New York Times on its list of the 50 best children's books of the previous 50 years.
Lent's artwork had been contributed to the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota and the Mazza Museum at the University of Findlay, in Findlay, Ohio.
Lent was a resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts and died at age 79 on January 27, 2009 of pneumonia in Medford, Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 2, 2012
John Tabor's Ride got a mixed reaction from its readers (my niece, nephew, and me) tonight. My nephew liked this one a lot--there was lots of action and adventure on the high seas, it had a salty sea dog at the head of the story, it had King Neptune... This is a classic boy's adventure story. My four-year old nephew gave this one "45 stars."
My niece wasn't terribly impressed with this John Tabor's Ride, though. She thought it was "kind of weird," and decided that this was a two star book. It just didn't seem to be her cup of tea.
I really liked the illustrations in this edition of the book, and I was pleased with the ending, because given the time this was written (1966), that ending could have been a lot more violent and lacking in compassion than it was. But the story seemed rather repetitive to me--lots of "land ho-ing" going on, and lots of "hold tight, John Tabor." And while there was adventure, those adventures really never went very deep, and never really had much substance to them. There was never any real explanation as to who this salty sea dog man was--I finally had to tell my niece that I thought he was just sort of a fairy godfather of the sea kind of guy. There was also violence done to whales in this story, so it's a story that may sit a little uncomfortably alongside today's sensibilities. I do love sea stories, though, so I can't honestly say that I didn't like this book, because something in me really kind of did. What I can honestly say is, this one isn't for everyone.
My niece wasn't terribly impressed with this John Tabor's Ride, though. She thought it was "kind of weird," and decided that this was a two star book. It just didn't seem to be her cup of tea.
I really liked the illustrations in this edition of the book, and I was pleased with the ending, because given the time this was written (1966), that ending could have been a lot more violent and lacking in compassion than it was. But the story seemed rather repetitive to me--lots of "land ho-ing" going on, and lots of "hold tight, John Tabor." And while there was adventure, those adventures really never went very deep, and never really had much substance to them. There was never any real explanation as to who this salty sea dog man was--I finally had to tell my niece that I thought he was just sort of a fairy godfather of the sea kind of guy. There was also violence done to whales in this story, so it's a story that may sit a little uncomfortably alongside today's sensibilities. I do love sea stories, though, so I can't honestly say that I didn't like this book, because something in me really kind of did. What I can honestly say is, this one isn't for everyone.
October 3, 2015
Gorgeous, creative illustrations.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews