Hurry!

by Harry Hartwick

When ten-year-old Tom Elson first sees the farivox, he senses it's an animal unlike anything he's ever known--and it seems to be smiling at him! But can an animal really speak? What would the farivox say to Tom? And what message would it give us about the future of our planet? Emily Arnold McCully adapts a previously published fantasy about a boy who wants to own a creature that is the last of its kind.

Genres: Picture Books, Fiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2000

Reviews

[booklady · Rating 4 out of 5]

An adaptation from Harry Hartwick's Farewell to the Farivox, I read and re-read this numerous times after I picked it up for $.50 at a used book sale. First, I'd never heard of a farivox. Second, I kept studying the beautiful pictures hoping there was a glimpse of one in the lovely water color pictures (there isn't) and third, I was just amazed by the story of an extinct animal which a little boy sees and almost gets for a pet.

It's a beautiful but sad story from another era.

[Marfita · Rating 2 out of 5]

A story with an environmental message, this was based on a 1972 story by Harry Hartwick. I picked it up because it was shelved in the picture books (and looks like one) but was cataloged for the chapter books. The language seemed a bit complex for a picture book, but there wasn't much of it. Amazon classified it for pre-school to grade 3.
A boy in 1916 sees a strange animal in a crate and gets a fancy to own it. The man transporting it will sell it for $10 but won't hang around. The boy thinks he hears the animal (which the man calls a farivox - a one of a kind critter) say, "Hurry!" Although he does, by the time he has gathered enough money to buy the farivox, the man has left and a farivox, like the passenger pigeon, was never seen again.
The man was described as "fat," so I suppose he ate it. Heh!

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't even know why I had picked this one of the shelves, but it has been sitting at my desk for weeks. I like the pictures. I like the setting of time. And I like how Tom really does try to hurry. I sorrow over species that have become lost and extinct, too, but this book still had an environmentalistic feel to it, instead of a story. I am a bit confused as to why the book starts out talking about passenger pigeons when it deals with a farivox (desciption of which sounds nothing like a passenger pigeon). Perhaps the fact that this is adapted from an original work, maybe something was left out somewhere.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The visual images in HURRY! give a very period feel to the story that fits its era and rural setting. The eyes of the farivox staring out through wooden slats with the rest of its face hidden is spot-on for sustaining the mystery of the whole story. If there is a downside, it's playing the environmental angle a little too heavily, but I think the story works fine without it.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book sure didn't end happily. It was an interesting story though. I wouldn't recommend reading it unless you are ready for the way it turns out. There's no happy ending to be had.