Our international move two months ago has impacted our family. My son (13), for example, doesn’t understand why we had to move here and still makes random comments that he wishes we could move back to the States—with humor, of course, though there’s certainly genuine displeasure underlying his jokes. My daughter (11) has enjoyed the move, though she’s always been pretty happy-go-lucky. Both of them, however, have been overjoyed finally to get their own bedrooms in our new place, which is great for everyone, though it also affects our ability to read together at night.
For that reason, our reading has been fairly hit-and-miss since the move, and we’ve actually only read a small handful of books together. Our most recent read came off the “Classics” section of the bookshelf I have here, The Incredible Journey. I’d grown up with the 1993 Disney film Homeward Bound based off this book, so I was curious how the animals characters would mirror those voiced by Michael J. Fox, Sally Field and some guy named Don Ameche. Of course, now after viewing that link, I see there’s also a 1963 Disney film called The Incredible Journey with a higher IMDB rating. I think we’ll have to check that one out too! [Note: We eventually did and 3/4 of us thought the 1963 version was better; my 11yo daughter disagreed because the animals don’t talk.]
Not surprisingly, the book was better than the film adaptation. I was surprised to find that none of the animal characters in the book ever spoke a word (weird, right?) or even thought in words. Instead, author Sheila Bunford expertly shows the animals’ thoughts and moods through their action, a writing feat that’s difficult to handle pages on end. This is one key difference between this and the more epic-styled animal-journey books I’ve read like Richard Adams‘ Watership Down and The Plague Dogs. Great books with great action, both, yet even Adams’ bunnies and dogs were anthropomorphized in that they spoke and shared legends, etc. Burnford’s vivid descriptions of life on the road communicate everything we readers need to know. We see the animal’s thoughts and feelings and attitudes, and that’s quite sufficient, especially since that’s how we deal with all our pets!
I especially liked the occasional path-crossings with humans of different types in this book: the Indian tribe, the crazy old man, and the kindly couple who help remove the infectious porcupine quills. Each stop and visit pushed not only the story further on but also the animal characters, and their bond to each other strengthened with each passing chapter.
The incredible journey that these three animals endured isn’t as far-fetched as people might think. In fact, only recently, a cat was found to have taken a 2-month, 900-mile journey to California after getting lost in Yellowstone Park! How is that even possible? I have no idea, but it makes this book all the more special—it could have happened exactly as Burnford presents it, with no gimmicks or literary rule-breaking. What a story!
I’ve given the kids a stack of three more semi-classic books for us to try to read at night. I’m going to figure out a way to make this work, because I really don’t want to lose the opportunity to feed into my kids’ lives through literature and the discussions that come with it. What I need, I think, is a nice reading chair situated between their two rooms with a lamp and footstool and…
©2024 E.T.