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allyoop's review against another edition
3.0
This book has a lot of intrigue and a sense of adventure. Charles Hawes really has “adventure” going for his writing. I feel like I can’t use that word enough.
However… this issue here is the hovering sense of racism. Although our heroes are unwittingly tricked into partaking in the slave trade, and disapprove, their main foe is “the blacks”. And considering what the main characters are doing in Africa, it’s hard to view the Africans as much of a villain. Africans attack and kill and provide a sense of danger, but there’s no real moral security in who you want to triumph. The attacks were written well (adventure!) but I wasn’t really on the side of our “heroes”. It is played out so there’s blackmail and the narrator is young and just trying to protect his uncle, etc… but that doesn’t make one believe the Africans are in the wrong. There were indeed internal villains in the group, and that was much more satisfying.
Overall, I enjoyed it. It toes the line, but it’s a decent, yeah, adventure.
However… this issue here is the hovering sense of racism. Although our heroes are unwittingly tricked into partaking in the slave trade, and disapprove, their main foe is “the blacks”. And considering what the main characters are doing in Africa, it’s hard to view the Africans as much of a villain. Africans attack and kill and provide a sense of danger, but there’s no real moral security in who you want to triumph. The attacks were written well (adventure!) but I wasn’t really on the side of our “heroes”. It is played out so there’s blackmail and the narrator is young and just trying to protect his uncle, etc… but that doesn’t make one believe the Africans are in the wrong. There were indeed internal villains in the group, and that was much more satisfying.
Overall, I enjoyed it. It toes the line, but it’s a decent, yeah, adventure.
tealmango's review against another edition
3.0
Read more on my blog: http://newberyandbeyond.com/mini-newbery-review-the-great-quest/
On one hand, the story is great. It’s entertaining, dramatic, almost Treasure Island-esque. Joe, the main character, is a young man who finds himself swept up in an adventure with some unsavory characters and a couple of good friends on his side. They go through battles, shipwrecks, illness, and many other trials, all in search of treasure that may or may not materialize.
On the other hand… This book is pretty old, and, I have to say—it’s pretty racist. Although the main character and his friends abhor slavery and are horrified that the aforementioned unsavory characters are slavers, there are plenty of patronizing views of black people, especially the Africans they fight against when they land on the coast of Africa. At first I thought I could ignore the racism, as I have to do in many older books that I read, but since a large portion of the book takes place in Africa, it’s pretty unavoidable.
On one hand, the story is great. It’s entertaining, dramatic, almost Treasure Island-esque. Joe, the main character, is a young man who finds himself swept up in an adventure with some unsavory characters and a couple of good friends on his side. They go through battles, shipwrecks, illness, and many other trials, all in search of treasure that may or may not materialize.
On the other hand… This book is pretty old, and, I have to say—it’s pretty racist. Although the main character and his friends abhor slavery and are horrified that the aforementioned unsavory characters are slavers, there are plenty of patronizing views of black people, especially the Africans they fight against when they land on the coast of Africa. At first I thought I could ignore the racism, as I have to do in many older books that I read, but since a large portion of the book takes place in Africa, it’s pretty unavoidable.
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