Quote of the Day

We can say without exaggeration that the present national ambition of the United States is unemployment. People live for quitting time, for weekends, for vacations, and for retirement; moreover this ambition seems to be classless, as true in the executive suites as on the assembly lines. One works not because one loves to do it, but only to be able to quit - a condition that a saner time would regard as infernal, a condemnation.

-Wendell Berry, Bringing It To The Table: On Farming and Food

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1923)

Hugh Lofting has a fabulous imagination!  I would love to take an extended vacation there someday…but until then this field trip into his fancy will have to suffice.  The character development of animals in The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle was fun and full of whimsy.  Even the 200 year old parrot, Polynesia, as the determined leading lady of this story was complex.

I highly recommend this book to read aloud to children.  And you have to come up with some great voices for the animals – CheeChee the monkey should make you laugh, and Jip, the dog should sound loyal and responsible.  Oh, the possibilities!  I think I will read this one to my kids over the summer…and then visit the zoo.

My only question for Doctor Dolittle would be how the animals in his acquaintance are named.  Do they tell them his name?  Or does he name them?  With a duck housekeeper named Dab-Dab I can’t be sure.  It’s a mystery I can live with.

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1 comment:

  1. I have started reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter series (after watching the movie) and I'm hooked. Of course being an avid syfy fan would have no influence on that, now would it!

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