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Minn of the Mississippi: A Newbery Honor Award Winner

Holling Clancy Holling

Start date: July 21, 2016

Finish date: July 24, 2016

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Jul 23, 2016 Dolly rated it really liked it

Shelves: other-usa, childrens, native-american, 2016, science, historical-fiction, ocean-seashore, canada, newbery-honor

We tried to read this book together, but as with Paddle-to-the-Sea, we just didn't get very far. It's too wordy and the reader really needs time to examine all of the magnificent illustrations and annotations along the way to truly appreciate the tale.

We adopted a common snapping turtle late last summer and she was a fun pet, at least until she grew to be a bit scary to handle. We brought her to a local nature center and they were glad to have another (relatively) calm snapper that they could b We tried to read this book together, but as with Paddle-to-the-Sea, we just didn't get very far. It's too wordy and the reader really needs time to examine all of the magnificent illustrations and annotations along the way to truly appreciate the tale.

We adopted a common snapping turtle late last summer and she was a fun pet, at least until she grew to be a bit scary to handle. We brought her to a local nature center and they were glad to have another (relatively) calm snapper that they could bring to school and library presentations. We miss her, but are glad that she is in the care of folks who know her needs better than we do.

So this tale brought back good memories of Snappy. At some point, the nature center may release her to their ponds, and this story makes me wonder if she would ever choose to wander.

The narrative of this book is quite long and perhaps a bit boring in detail. I know that I dozed off several times. Still, it's incredibly informative and I learned a lot about the mighty Mississippi River as well as about snapping turtles. It's certainly worth spending some time with this book.

interesting quotes:

"'Yes,' said the man-who-knew, 'turtles do seem foolish. But they have kept alive on this jumpy planet for a long, long time - at least some one hundred seventy-five million years! As one of them might say, 'We turtles saw the great dinosaurs come - and also go. And what are you, who call yourself Humans? You haven't yet learned the simple rule - KILL ONLY FOR REAL NEED! You're a new experiment. My children's children will see how the experiment turns out - ten million years from now!'" (p. 22)

"Yep, 'twas 1811 that changed things. Plenty! Some folks up at Pittsburgh had whanged out an iron kettle, all crawling with pipes; wrestled it into a boat; set a fire under it. A sane man would've bet that fool boat would blow to thunder! Yet she could spank herself upstream! And she traveled Ohio and Mississippi, out-whooping loudest Injuns and keel-men! Oak-tough pole-men sure hated like poison to admit that horny hands, leather lungs, rawhide sinews were beat by hatfuls of wispy STEAM!" (p. 66)

"I do not need th' treasure buried in God's banks of sand an' mud. That is maybe the great satisfaction. With gold in town banks - does one handle the gold? No. One has the paper money instead. So, Grand-Pere he say we Cajuns have the same as buried treasure; stars for diamonds, an' nobody gets killed for them; gold of the shrimp an' the crab from rich waters, the silver of shining fish. Isn't that enough treasure - for us to dig it, any time? For us, that is enough..." (p. 86) ...more

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Dec 29, 2011 Shelly marked it as to-read

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Jul 05, 2022 Sarah rated it it was amazing

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