Paddle-to-the-Sea: A Classic Adventure About a Carved Canoe’s Journey Through the Great Lakes (Sandpiper Books)

This book illustrates the most natural way to teach geography to children. It is an older book and there is a reason it is still around. It's "flowing" story begins from one boy's curiosity about where the water in streams go. After hearing the explanation of how rivers from his area flow into the Great Lakes and eventually into the Atlantic Ocean, he crafts a small sea worthy, wooden canoe, places a miniature Native American passenger in it, and launches the canoe from a melting ice flow. The journey begins in one of the most northern streams in America. "Paddle to the Sea", the name of his canoe travels along the water's edge, where the tides and storms direct. While passing settlements and landscapes, both beautiful and serene, as well as wild and treacherous, the little canoe encounters many adventures. Children will sit on the edge of their seats as the vivid words capture their imaginations and they enjoy the lively exciting illustrations. "Paddle to the Sea" is an 'accessible' taste of the past, and a little flavor of what our country is like. The concepts in this book are 'accessible' to children as children learn best through pictures, whether it is through the words in the story that paint pictures, or the vivid illustrations. This book has both. "Paddle to the Sea"is a well told adventure that will capture the attention of any 8 year old child or older. Parents will enjoy sharing this book with their child as well.

Very beautifully written and illustrated. It is very engaging and informative about geography, culture, nature (seasons, wildlife etc) and piques the curiosity of the reader / listener. When you read it in installments like I did, there is always anticipation that builds up and holds the interest of the children about what is going to happen next. I was introduced to this book by my trainer during my primary educator training. It is one of my favourite things to gift young children.

This is a terrific book. My father used to read 2-3 pages a night to me and my sister. It is lavishly illustrated and it is a heartwarming story. I bought this copy for the 3 youngsters who live down the street. I am sure they will love it.

Beautiful, imagination-sparking for how the Northern through Midwest USA is rich with waterways that fueled industry. Sounds boring? Then, I must not have explained it well. I am gifting this to young people who live in rural northern Illinois, so they can appreciate the richness of the land in the history that surrounds them. You don’t need to live near a big city to feel history.

Great story with outstanding pictures about a carved canoe that takes an epic voyage.

This was a favorite story for my children! Read it countless times. Then someone borrowed it & did not return so had to purchase another

Outstanding book. The art work keeps up with the writing.

A very engaging account of a young Canadian who carves a foot long canoe with his Paddle Person, adds ballast and rudder to it, and sets it in the snow on a hill above the river between Lake Nipigon and the northern 'point' of Lake Superior with a carved message on its bottom, "PLEASE PUT ME BACK IN THE WATER--I AM PADDLE TO THE SEA, where it slides into the river with the melting snow and into Lake Superior. Holling Clancy Holling crafts a delightful tale of Paddle-to-the-Sea's four-year-long journey which ended at sea with a French fishing boat, father and son. Heart-felt waterway and geographical descriptions and accounts of people along the way. Copyrighted in 1941 and renewed in 1969. It thrilled the heart of this Michigan girl.

ES UN LIBRO GENIAL, Y TIENE UNOS DIBUJOS TAAAN BONITOS...

This 68 page evergreen, copiously colour-and-mono illustrated, large format book, is of a long journey by a toy canoe made by a Canadian Indian boy from lake Nipigon, Ontario to the Atlantic Sea via the Great Lakes and Rivers. It was written and beautifully illustrated, including Maps, by the Author Holling Clancy Holling. A "Must Have" book for children both old and young. Just re-printed: ISBN-13: 978-0-395-15082-5 by Clarion Books - an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers and Just re-printed - well, I bought my copy new in 2024.

Mi sono innamorato di questo libro dopo aver visto una puntata di "Un Medico tra gli Orsi". E' la favola di Pagaia Veloce, un bambino indiano che vorrebbe esplorare il mondo. Per il bambino curioso che è in tutti noi...

This is a book I remember reading as a child, again as a young adult, repeatedly with our children when they were small – and now as a Grandpa with my own store, something I treasure and want to see in the personal library of every family. Almost too lengthy for the genre in which it seems it should fit, it in fact creates a genre all its own. The wealth of research behind it is priceless. The artistry is astonishing. The geography it explores gives SO MUCH INSIGHT into the water-shed of the Great Lakes with the competing influences of water currents, wind, logging and sawmills. The book is a treasure, and for Homeschool Families especially, offers so much educational value in a delightful way. It is one of those timeless books where the illustrations and the text together tell a story that hundreds of hours of in-depth research could not duplicate. It is exceptionally rare for a book to teach so much, but also to be fun to view and to read. Five stars is not adequate. Published in 1941 – older by quite a bit even than this old Grandpa, it is still a treasure.

I read this beautiful book when I was a young child. It filled my head with thoughts of adventure. I have spent much of my adult life travelling the world and meeting interesting people. Thank you.