Any Arthur Ransome Fans in here?

[Shawn]

Hi folks,

Anyone else enjoy the 'Swallows and Amazone' series by Arthur Ransome? Would you care to discuss why we enjoy his writings?

[Carol]

Shawn, you wrote your question over a year ago and no reply! I think the Arthur Ransome books are a very British thing and not only that, have fallen out of favor with the current generation. A British friend turned us on to them. I read the first one to my daughter and we both enjoyed it. I order the others in the series for her (she was in upper elementary at the time, or maybe middle school) and she read them all and liked them. But I know very few American kids who have even heard of them (and I used to work in the library at my kids' international school)! I can't talk too much myself about them, as I only read the first one and it was a while ago, but I loved the idea of those kids having all that freedom to sail and play on their own, no adults overly worried about them. Hard to imagine kids having that freedom nowadays.

[Elanor]

Oh yeah! The Swallows and Amazons series! Actually, my library doesn't have any of them either, but amazingly, I found the first book while thrift shopping. I read it and liked it a lot...but since our library doesn't have any more, I haven't read any more of his books.

[Nancy]

I've read, and even own them. I don't know if I came across them here in the States, or in Europe when I was a kid. This reminds me to reread them since it's been so long.