Author: Armstrong Sperry
Publisher: Recorded Books
Rating: worthy
Read by George Guidall who does a really decent job. Amstrong Sperry has the honor of sharing the same family name with my character Stephen Sperry in Wedlock! (no relation!).
I railed against an older guy reading a young people's story in the case of The Wells Bequest because it seemed to me that the voice just was not right for the tale being told. Well here's a case of the voice working perfectly. Guidall reads with animation and feeling, and draws you into, rather than repelling you from this story.
This is a very short story about Mafatu, a young boy who lives in the Pacific islands, who lost his mother in a storm at sea some years before, and has since had a debilitating fear of the ocean. This is a bad thing for a boy who lives on an island and whose very masculinity is defined by his mastering the waves. His people are tragically superstitious, praying to the god of the fishing folk, whose name is Maui, and living in fear of the god of the sea, Moana, so it’s not only Mafatu who is fearful. He just has it worse than most.
One day, tired of being the constant butt of comments and jokes about his phobia, Mafatu recklessly takes an outrigger and launches himself upon the sea, determined to live somewhere else where he can start anew. Unfortunately, a hurricane has other ideas, and it all but destroys his canoe, eventually casting him sunburned and thirsty, onto another island known to be visited by cannibals. Now where these cannibals find their food is a bit of a mystery since the nearby island are relatively small, and unpopulated. It must make for interesting dinner parties….
The story sees Mafatu through some tough but improbable adventures, returning, of course, triumphantly home at the end. I recommend this novella as a ripping good yarn - and it's short, so kids can't complain!
