Shipwreck! How a family survives having been shipwrecked on a tropical island is a classic story of ingenuity and resourcefulness. Salvaging vital stores from their doomed boat and making use of the abundance the island offers, the family creates an idyllic life for themselves in which they befriend the local wild animals as well as enjoying the local foods. A great book for reading aloud, this edition includes useful additional material including a Who’s Who of the characters and a Glossary of some of the more unusual words as well as an Introduction by Jon Scieszka who is so passionate about the story that he’s threatening to take a boat onto some sharp rock near a deserted island so that he too can enjoy the idyllic times a la Swiss Family Robinson.
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This classic story of a Swiss family - pastor, wife and four sons -shipwreaked on an uninhabited island (most fortunately blessed with an unlikely profusion of natural resources) was written by a Swiss army chaplain for the entertainment of his own four sons. The family adventures in survival; also provided a useful starting point for lessons in natural history. First published in Zurich in 1812-13, the story was translated into French and English shortly afterwards and has appeared in many versions ever since. When, in 1909, the American artist Louis John Rhead was invited to illustrate the Robinson's adventures, he based his numerous drawings on 'sketches made in the tropics. '
Johann David Wyss , 1743-1818, Swiss author. His Swiss Family Robinson (1813, tr. 1814), an internationally popular classic for children, relates the adventures of a shipwrecked family. It is based on Robinson Crusoe. The book was edited by Wyss's son Johann Rudolf Wyss, 1781-1830, who was professor of philosophy at Bern and author of the Swiss national anthem.
