Captains Courageous

Harvey Cheyne Jr. an arrogant fifteen -year- old, greatly disliked by the annoyed passengers, spoiled son of a multi -millionaire railroad tycoon from San Diego, ( my hometown) is being taken to Europe by his parents on a luxury liner, a steamship, set in the late nineteenth century. As they enter t......more

I read most of this aloud to my older boys as I was putting them to sleep at night, and I think that's probably the best way to navigate through Kipling's tale. It's a lot of fun, but if you're reading silently, not trying on the accents as Kipling's written them, I think you miss a lot. This book i......more

This was a book I read as background for teaching British Literature, back when Barb and I were homeschooling our girls. My prior acquaintance with Kipling consisted of having read The Jungle Book as a kid, plus some of his short and short-ish fiction and a handful of his poems. (Though this novella......more

This is Kipling's only novel concerning North America. It is consistent with his others in the underlying theme that experience is the great teacher. Harvey Cheyne is a coddled adolescent whose parents' wealth he takes for granted. The bulk of the story concerns his going over the rail on an Atlanti......more

Second reading November 2016 First reading: August 2014 I didn't really expect to love a sailor's story but clearly I didn't have any idea how much Leadership Education can be cultivated on the dangerous fishing lines of the Atlantic. The book is totally different than anything else I have read by Ki......more