4.5 ★ - (loved it, favorite)

As far as childhood favorites, this series is exceeded only by The Chronicles of Narnia. So I won't pretend to be unbiased. This book holds many sentimental memories of my family curling up and reading it aloud before bedtime. (On a side note, I think this is one of the best read-aloud family books out there. Though it is a children's book, it contains something charmed that will appeal to the sense of adventure in people of all ages. If you ask any member of my family to recommend a book for children, the response always includes an emphatic SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS!) Swallows and Amazons is the lovely story of a family of children who spend their summer sailing around a lake, camping on an island, and having wholesome fun. It may sound too saccharine, but too me it represents innocence and the childhood spirit of adventure. This book greatly influenced my own imagination and play. I dearly wanted to be pulled into their world to spend my days voyaging with them. Certainly, there are things in this book that would have modern-day helicopter parents calling the police about child endangerment. It seems an almost extinct concept these days to teach a child how to responsibly do something rather than just forbidding them to do it. So while it may seem dangerous to some that these children are aloud to go off camping and sailing by themselves, they are in fact still closely watched and have rules in place. Anyway, don't let modern worrywarts suck the fun out of everything. This is a wonderful, heartwarming adventure that should appeal to all ages. There was one sadness that accompanied this reread: this was the first time that it occurred to me that with the time in which this story is set, John and Roger would have come of age just before WWII and almost assuredly ending up fighting in it. It seems silly to be concerned with the hypothetical fates of fictional characters, but I grew up with these characters and am very sentimental about them. Still, this is an amazing read and a timeless classic! This review fulfills the "Book from My Childhood" category of the Popsugar reading challenge. http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-...

I was in two minds about this book at the start, mainly because I could not deal with no many descriptions of sailing and readying a boat. However, the story itself quickly had me hooked and by the last few pages I was tearing up, not wanting it to be over almost as much as the Swallows. This book has given me some pretty good child-rearing ideas at least!