I sent a note to my local library asking about the book, here is the response I got:
Hello,
Unfortunately, there is nothing by this description in our catalog anymore.
The following titles are owned by other libraries in the U.S.:
Homes of character, illustrating one hundred designs Robert L Stevenson
&
Portfolio of homes designed Robert L Stevenson
I'm unsure if it's the same Robert Louis Stevenson though.
Both titles list the birth year as 1883, while the Treasure Island author's birth year was 1850.
So the librarian 12 years ago made an assumption. I followed right along, because it didn't occur to me to check the birth dates either, I just looked at the name.
TODAY'S POST ON TREASURE ISLAND:
Wikipedia notes:
"Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold". First published as a book on May 23, 1883, it was originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881–82 under the title Treasure Island or, the mutiny of the Hispaniola with Stevenson adopting the pseudonym Captain George North. With Jim Hawkins as the main character in the story.
"Traditionally considered a coming-of-age story, Treasure Island is an adventure tale known for its atmosphere, characters and action, and also as a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality — as seen in Long John Silver — unusual for children's literature now and then. It is one of the most frequently dramatized of all novels. The influence of Treasure Island on popular perceptions of pirates is enormous, including treasure maps marked with an "X", schooners, the Black Spot, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen carrying parrots on their shoulders.[1]"
My husband and I started listening to this book on the same day. He came home from work and said - I bet you love this one.
And I did.
I had never read it before last month. Not sure how I missed it.
And if I had read it, I would have read it out loud to my kids. They would have loved it too.
One thing I loved (from the point of view of reading it to kids) is that the first sentence, from the point of view of Jim, tells the reader Jim/the main character is going to be okay:
"SQUIRE TRELAWNEY, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17__ and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow Inn and the brown old seaman with the sabre cut first took up his lodging under our roof."
Frankly, there are a lot of people who die in this book. I would still read it to a child who really loves stories (as long as they were not prone to fear and could enjoy the story). But I would make sure to point out that first sentence so they were not scared for Jim through the whole story.
It is one of those books which might make a better listen than a read, because the speech is pretty wonderful. The version I listened to was from USFLit2Go off iTunes. The reader was really great. I could hear him turning the pages of the book, which added to the whole experience.
Oldest listens to an individual who does his own podcasts of Sherlock Holmes. So this is just a lay person who has taken this on as a project. I think he is working his way through (podcasting) the complete works. And every once in a while, you can hear the guy's cat meow. Sort of priceless.
There were several people at our book review group who said they wished they had listened to this book as they thought it would be a better read in audio format. They were not saying they didn't like the book, almost everyone LOVED it, but they thought it would have been better as a listen.
The group facilitator is always surprised that all the women in the group LOVE what he thinks of as boy books. He does not mean male books. He means juvenile fiction action books.
I was not surprised I loved it. But I (too) was surprised at some of the women (in the group) who loved it.
I have started listing all the characters (from that month's book) on the huge dry erase board at our discussion group. I write the name and then something very short that will trigger our memories (Ben Gunn - marooned 3 years). It allows for much better discussion as it is easier to remember all the names. And it also insures that we talk about all the characters. Treasure Island is not very long, a super fast read at 7 CD's/7 hours, but I thought I was going to run out of board, lots of characters.
We had a great discussion. One other thing that our facilitator always says - he does not have to keep track of every nuance as he reads, because one of us (in the group) will be sure to bring IT up (whatever it is in a particular book). This group has a lot of detailed readers (I am one of them). And we have a couple former English Lit high school teachers who actually taught some of these books. My other group does too. Those former Lit teachers add a lot to the mix.
