Amazon Adventure

For the Futurama short, see Amazon Adventure (film).
Amazon Adventure

First US edition cover
Author Willard Price
Language English
Series Willard Price's Adventure series
Genre Young adult
Adventure novel
Publisher
John Day (US)
Publication date
1949
Followed by South Sea Adventure

Amazon Adventure is a 1949 children's novel by the Canadian-born American author Willard Price featuring his "Adventure" series characters, Hal and Roger Hunt. It depicts an expedition to the Amazon River to capture animals for their father's wildlife collection business.

Allies

Enemies

Reception

Dorothy Hinman, reviewing the book for Elementary English in February 1950, wrote:

The authentic experiences presented by Willard Price in this account of a trip through the Amazon jungle in themselves would offer to an adult sufficient excitement. The author's addition of the mystery and his too free use of coincidence to extricate the characters from every predicament of danger make most of the story unconvincing [...] But for the upper-grade boy ‒ the more excitement, danger, and mystery the better. He will likely judge this a rousing good adventure story.[1]

Timothy Gaynor has criticised Willard Price's depiction of the Amazon, writing that Price "exaggerates the perils posed by the Amazonian fauna to an absurdly hyperbolic degree. In this text the Amazon is a phantasmagoria of man-eating piranhas and anacondas that lie in wait to devour the hapless adventurers. Needless to say, the resourceful boy heroes see their way through this challenge while their "native" manservants perish horribly."[2] English author Anthony McGowan, who revived the Adventure series in 2012, has cited Amazon Adventure as the series' best entry "from a literary point of view".[3]

Animals captured

Animals captured in Amazon Adventure
Species Name Details
Iguana Lured onto the boys' boat by Roger's singing
Anaconda The brave Indian Aqua was killed while attempting to capture this snake
Boa constrictor Several dozen baby boa constrictors were also acquired when the captured mother gave birth
Tapir Nosey Nosey's mother was shot down while attacking the Hunts' camp
Vampire bat Vamp Roger is given the task of regularly providing fresh blood for the bat, usually from a capybara
Marmoset Specs
Jabiru Stilts Captured when it tried to raid the boys' fish stocks.
Wood ibis This bird was eaten when an anaconda boarded the boat and smashed open the cage
Basilisk The enthusiastic Indian Aqua captured this lizard
Electric eel Was captured while the boys were on the floating island. The electric eel is used to overpower Croc once they catch up with their boat
Giant anteater One giant anteater was killed during a capture attempt, but a second was captured safely
Sloth
Armadillo
Amazon deer Was used as bait to lure the anaconda, but survived the ordeal
Two jaguars Includes one very rare black jaguar, which was captured using "bird-lime."

References

  1. Dorothy Hinman, "Review and Criticism" Elementary English (February 1950), 27(2): 138-141. Retrieved November 19, 2015
  2. Timothy Gaynor, "See Green: 500 Years of Writing the Amazon". In: Literature of Nature: An International Sourcebook (1998), p385-388, Taylor & Francis.
  3. Jim Dean, "Friday Feature: Interview with Anthony McGowan" YA Yeah Yeah, 17 August 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
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