What do you think?
Rate this book
Far Out the Long Canal
Two-day adventure of a Dutch boy who learns to skate when he is on a wild adventure where the ice is thin.
231 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1964
1 person is currently reading
92 people want to read
About the author
Meindert De Jong
44 books76 followersMeindert De Jong was an award-winning author of children's books. He was born in the village of Wierum, of the province of Friesland, in the Netherlands.
De Jong immigrated to the United States with his family in 1914. He attended Dutch Calvinist secondary schools and Calvin College, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and entered the University of Chicago, but left without graduating.
He held various jobs during the Great Depression, and it was at the suggestion of a local librarian that he began writing children's books. His first book The Big Goose and the Little White Duck was published in 1938.
He wrote several more books before joining the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, serving in China. After the war he resumed writing, and for several years resided in Mexico. He returned for a time to Michigan. After settling in North Carolina, he returned to Michigan for the final years of his life.
De Jong immigrated to the United States with his family in 1914. He attended Dutch Calvinist secondary schools and Calvin College, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and entered the University of Chicago, but left without graduating.
He held various jobs during the Great Depression, and it was at the suggestion of a local librarian that he began writing children's books. His first book The Big Goose and the Little White Duck was published in 1938.
He wrote several more books before joining the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, serving in China. After the war he resumed writing, and for several years resided in Mexico. He returned for a time to Michigan. After settling in North Carolina, he returned to Michigan for the final years of his life.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 20, 2020
By the time Far Out the Long Canal was released in 1964, Meindert DeJong already had an illustrious career as a children's author—including four Newbery Honors, and the 1955 Newbery Medal for The Wheel on the School—and he would go on to write beloved novels for decades to come. Far Out the Long Canal spirits us away to a village in the Netherlands where nine-year-old Moonta Riemersma feels like the only kid who hasn't learned to ice skate. The last time the canal froze, four winters ago, Moonta fell ill and lay miserable in bed while his peers learned to fly on the ice. Moonta is far older than most Dutch kids who learn to skate, a source of deep shame for him, but his hopes rise when Lees, a neighbor woman, predicts a freeze for the first time since Moonta was five. Will his dream come true, or yield to another season of disappointment?
The freeze goes as predicted, hardening the waters at the Children's Skate School Field and the canal. Ashamed though he is to be a novice skater, Moonta is willing to learn in public at the Skate School Field, until the school headmaster forbids all but the youngest kids from using it. If Moonta isn't permitted to practice, how will he ever become a champion like his mother and father? The headmaster's decree fills Moonta with anxiety on what should be a joyful occasion, but he, his mother, and the headmaster sort it out eventually. Soon Moonta is sliding along the ice behind a little red chair, learning to keep his balance on a pair of skates. His parents fret that Moonta hasn't the sense to take a break when he's tired or overly cold, that the extreme temperatures could land him in bed sick again, but Moonta is thrilled to finally get out on the canal with the villagers. A boy could hardly ask for more.
Ideal skating conditions is cause to cancel school in these parts, and Moonta's parents plan a day of festivity out on the long, wide canal. His father pledges to take Moonta to see the New Church's Pipe for the first time, but Grandpa has his own request: to go on the Eleven-Towns Tour with his son, Moonta's father. It's an all-day commitment, but Grandpa is old and may not have another chance to skate the canal's full circuit. With no guarantee ice will remain tomorrow, Moonta is bitterly disappointed. Perhaps he'll go skating after the New Church's Pipe himself, though his mother orders him to remain in sight on the village section of the canal. If only the mysterious Pipe weren't such a temptation...or the headmaster hadn't been so strict when Moonta misbehaves in a moment of weakness... The boy scoots off down the canal, unnoticed by other skaters, well beyond where his mother is comfortable with him going. His father and Grandpa may be more enamored of their tour than skating with Moonta, but he'll show them: he'll find the Pipe without their help. As night descends, Moonta drifts further from home, into areas dotted by weak ice where a skater can plunge through to his death. He wishes he'd never defied his parents or the headmaster, but Moonta can't bear to go home with nothing to show for his jaunt down the canal. Unwittingly, Moonta has put himself in position to save a life, to atone for childish indiscretions and prove that a late start as a skater doesn't mean he can't become a master, and maybe a hero. Will the skating holiday end more happily than Moonta dared dream?
Meindert DeJong has a knack for portraying childhood longing so we feel it as strongly as the main character. Moonta has desired to skate for most of his life, but missed his opportunity at age five, and there's no telling when ice will return again. Far Out the Long Canal takes place over just a couple of days, but the intensity of Moonta's experience makes it feel longer, a series of miniature dramas that mean nearly everything to a boy whose heart yearns to skate. The headmaster and Moonta's parents don't always treat him fairly, which can be frustrating for the reader, and Meindert DeJong is capable of a more emotional and thoughtful narrative, but Far Out the Long Canal is a decent book, and I might rate it two and a half stars. It isn't equal to some of the author's Newbery award books, but I feel privileged to have spent a couple hundred pages with Moonta out on the ice.
The freeze goes as predicted, hardening the waters at the Children's Skate School Field and the canal. Ashamed though he is to be a novice skater, Moonta is willing to learn in public at the Skate School Field, until the school headmaster forbids all but the youngest kids from using it. If Moonta isn't permitted to practice, how will he ever become a champion like his mother and father? The headmaster's decree fills Moonta with anxiety on what should be a joyful occasion, but he, his mother, and the headmaster sort it out eventually. Soon Moonta is sliding along the ice behind a little red chair, learning to keep his balance on a pair of skates. His parents fret that Moonta hasn't the sense to take a break when he's tired or overly cold, that the extreme temperatures could land him in bed sick again, but Moonta is thrilled to finally get out on the canal with the villagers. A boy could hardly ask for more.
Ideal skating conditions is cause to cancel school in these parts, and Moonta's parents plan a day of festivity out on the long, wide canal. His father pledges to take Moonta to see the New Church's Pipe for the first time, but Grandpa has his own request: to go on the Eleven-Towns Tour with his son, Moonta's father. It's an all-day commitment, but Grandpa is old and may not have another chance to skate the canal's full circuit. With no guarantee ice will remain tomorrow, Moonta is bitterly disappointed. Perhaps he'll go skating after the New Church's Pipe himself, though his mother orders him to remain in sight on the village section of the canal. If only the mysterious Pipe weren't such a temptation...or the headmaster hadn't been so strict when Moonta misbehaves in a moment of weakness... The boy scoots off down the canal, unnoticed by other skaters, well beyond where his mother is comfortable with him going. His father and Grandpa may be more enamored of their tour than skating with Moonta, but he'll show them: he'll find the Pipe without their help. As night descends, Moonta drifts further from home, into areas dotted by weak ice where a skater can plunge through to his death. He wishes he'd never defied his parents or the headmaster, but Moonta can't bear to go home with nothing to show for his jaunt down the canal. Unwittingly, Moonta has put himself in position to save a life, to atone for childish indiscretions and prove that a late start as a skater doesn't mean he can't become a master, and maybe a hero. Will the skating holiday end more happily than Moonta dared dream?
Meindert DeJong has a knack for portraying childhood longing so we feel it as strongly as the main character. Moonta has desired to skate for most of his life, but missed his opportunity at age five, and there's no telling when ice will return again. Far Out the Long Canal takes place over just a couple of days, but the intensity of Moonta's experience makes it feel longer, a series of miniature dramas that mean nearly everything to a boy whose heart yearns to skate. The headmaster and Moonta's parents don't always treat him fairly, which can be frustrating for the reader, and Meindert DeJong is capable of a more emotional and thoughtful narrative, but Far Out the Long Canal is a decent book, and I might rate it two and a half stars. It isn't equal to some of the author's Newbery award books, but I feel privileged to have spent a couple hundred pages with Moonta out on the ice.
June 17, 2017
I was a bit hesitant to read this for fear of skating and more skating - I'd already done that with the much shorter A Day on Skates: The Story of a Dutch Picnic which was absolutely glorious, but I was not looking for Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates.
But the catch here is that Moonta has, through no fault of his own, never learned to skate. This gives him all kinds of insecurities, but he also makes bad decisions, particularly with regard to lying, bragging, etc. I loved the honest portrayal of both Moonta and his parents and other adults. There are both good and bad people, and more significantly, there are people who are both good and bad. As with many of DeJong's books, there's a lot of wishing and hoping and time spent on children's preconceptions (and misconceptions) about things to come. We also see how adults are sometimes not all that different from children when it comes to getting excited about their favorite pastimes.
We learn a good deal about local culture in food, clothing, activities, geography, but the real appeal in this book is found in what is universal. I think this is my favorite yet of the DeJong books that I have read.
But the catch here is that Moonta has, through no fault of his own, never learned to skate. This gives him all kinds of insecurities, but he also makes bad decisions, particularly with regard to lying, bragging, etc. I loved the honest portrayal of both Moonta and his parents and other adults. There are both good and bad people, and more significantly, there are people who are both good and bad. As with many of DeJong's books, there's a lot of wishing and hoping and time spent on children's preconceptions (and misconceptions) about things to come. We also see how adults are sometimes not all that different from children when it comes to getting excited about their favorite pastimes.
We learn a good deal about local culture in food, clothing, activities, geography, but the real appeal in this book is found in what is universal. I think this is my favorite yet of the DeJong books that I have read.
February 13, 2020
There hasn't been ice on the canal in four years. For nine-year-old Moonta, who was sick that last icy winter, it has been four long years of waiting to learn to skate. When the canal finally freezes over, Moonta is eager to make up for lost time. As he tries to catch up to his classmates, however, Moonta's desire to become a great skater overnight begins to cloud his judgment and he finds himself in a number of difficult and increasingly dangerous situations.
This book is both an engaging portrayal of the culture of a specific place and a universal tale about patience, humility, and persistence. Moonta's predicament of not learning to skate with his peers immediately establishes him as a sympathetic character, and the understanding that the ice may be short-lived, or might not come again in the near future, gives the events of the story a strong sense of urgency. The weather, too, is described so well that the reader truly understands how cold it is on the canal, and how the ice feels beneath Moonta's skates and the little red chair he uses to help him balance.
Though the story is told from Moonta's perspective, there are a lot of wonderful supporting characters whose own flaws and personalities also come across very strongly. Particularly appealing are Moonta's headmaster who is stern in school but childlike on skates, Moonta's mother and father, the champion skaters of his village, Moonta's grandfather, who has been waiting these past four years for what is likely to be his last skating adventure, and Aunt Cora, who never learned to skate at all. The way these characters react to the arrival of ice on the canal after such a long time contribute to the reader's understanding of how joyous an occasion this is for this community. Because the adult characters also love to skate (or regret not learning how), it is also easier to forgive them when they are hard on Moonta, because the reader can see that, deep down, they truly do understand his desire to get four years of skating into just a day or two.
Far Out the Long Canal is a great winter read. I enjoyed it even more than DeJong's The Wheel on the School and found it just as quick and cozy a read as A Day on Skates by Hilda van Stockum, which is similar in content, but different enough that reading both books does not feel tedious. Suggest this book to readers - especially boys - who like non-fantasy adventure stories and winter sports.
This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.
This book is both an engaging portrayal of the culture of a specific place and a universal tale about patience, humility, and persistence. Moonta's predicament of not learning to skate with his peers immediately establishes him as a sympathetic character, and the understanding that the ice may be short-lived, or might not come again in the near future, gives the events of the story a strong sense of urgency. The weather, too, is described so well that the reader truly understands how cold it is on the canal, and how the ice feels beneath Moonta's skates and the little red chair he uses to help him balance.
Though the story is told from Moonta's perspective, there are a lot of wonderful supporting characters whose own flaws and personalities also come across very strongly. Particularly appealing are Moonta's headmaster who is stern in school but childlike on skates, Moonta's mother and father, the champion skaters of his village, Moonta's grandfather, who has been waiting these past four years for what is likely to be his last skating adventure, and Aunt Cora, who never learned to skate at all. The way these characters react to the arrival of ice on the canal after such a long time contribute to the reader's understanding of how joyous an occasion this is for this community. Because the adult characters also love to skate (or regret not learning how), it is also easier to forgive them when they are hard on Moonta, because the reader can see that, deep down, they truly do understand his desire to get four years of skating into just a day or two.
Far Out the Long Canal is a great winter read. I enjoyed it even more than DeJong's The Wheel on the School and found it just as quick and cozy a read as A Day on Skates by Hilda van Stockum, which is similar in content, but different enough that reading both books does not feel tedious. Suggest this book to readers - especially boys - who like non-fantasy adventure stories and winter sports.
This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.
October 21, 2025
a Dutch boy learns to skate later than his peers because he was ill the last time the ice froze hard a few years ago. So he's desperate to get out on the ice, making bad choices in his eagerness (lying, going off up the canal in the dark without telling anyone, whining, making messes his poor mother has to deal with). I could appreciate his position, but a little less self-centeredness to go along with the ice skating would have helped. The rare moments when he thinks of others were nice. It is odd that he seems to have no friends, but that would have made the book less about him, which was not (apparently) the author's intent.
December 28, 2013
Have read it many times. Love this story.
January 14, 2018
Great book! I can't wait to read it to my kids.
October 1, 2024
Damn just let the kid go ice skating and we wouldn't have all these problems
December 20, 2024
This is a sweet little story that I’d love to read aloud for my children again. I have faint memories of my Dutch Opa talking to me about his experiences skating on the canals as a child so this really was such a treat to read Moonta’s story. DeJong writes a bit repetitive in the beginning but the plot in general was enjoyable.
December 20, 2020
I enjoyed reading this book, and especially liked the pictures. The quote on pg 113 about making a drawing of a dream was perfect!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews