Enchanting
It's hard to explain what makes this book so charming: The writing, the way the children and their relationships with each other are shown so clearly and believably, the very real adventures they have, the sense of place....but listing those traits doesn't do the book justice. It's also really funny in places! Ransome creates a world that is clearer and lighter and more enchanting than the one most of us live in -- but he's also written a realistic book. The Lake District DOES look the way he describes it, and there could be children like the Swallows and their friends the Amazon pirates.

The books are for all ages, and I think they are also inspiring and a good influence! They make me want to have adventures -- and they encourage parents by example to let their children have them. The parents in the books are responsible, teach their children well -- and allow them to adventure on their own. They can do that because they've taught the children to have good judgment and be responsible.

Arthur Ransome's own favorite in the series was WINTER HOLIDAY, which I also loved. Once the original characters leave the series, it loses its interest (for me, anyway) -- children who enjoyed the first books will also probably like Blow Out the Moon by Libby Koponen and all the E.Nesbit books.

About 60 years ago I read as many books from this series that I could find in my local public library. I had passed through a phase of devouring the Dr. Doolittle fantasy series (so damaged by the motion pictures using that title - how could they cast tall lanky Rex Harrison in the role of a short cuddly grandfather-like figure?) Another series in which, as an American boy fascinated by warplanes during the Worl War II era - I went on to become an aerospace engineer - I was enthralled, was "A Yank in the RAF", which I don't think would translate to the 21st Century very well. But the series that made the most impact on me was Ransome's Swallow family. As with Hugh Lofting's Doolittle, the author's drawings enhanced the books.

I have not visited there yet but I plan on touring Britain's Lake District (I don't think I was cognizant of where the tales took place, except I knew the children were British. They liked to drink ginger beer; in the US we had a ginger ale drink, but not ginger beer and I was curious to have some.) I have long wanted to live somewhere that would allow me to experience the thrill of mastering the small sailing boats of the story. The closest I came was living near the Pacific in California and near the Potomac River. But the boats in those regions were larger and not terribly accessible. I did go sailing with friends and tried to sail on my own in a marina with a rented boat (a too narrow and crowded venue for a novice just learning to tack and unfamiliar with how to dump wind from the sail when being carried in the wrong direction.) I have gotten to taste ginger beer. I have also used the children's means of including coded messages in their letters in the form of dancing stick figures around the page's margin (the secret was to ignore other parts of the figures and concentrate on the positions of the arms, which were standard semaphore code.) I introduced the code to one of my daughters when we were in the "Indian Princesses" organization. (Is the name and programs of that organization offensive to American Indians? I'm sure its founders weren't sensitive to the fact that American Indians still existed.)

I will introduce this series to my precocius 6 year old grand daughter when I think she is ready.

A reading level of ages four to eight? I vigorously question that. Perhaps grades four to eight. The vocabulary, as is the case with many older books, is quite sophisticated. That said, this book is a treasure.

I discovered SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS as a child of twelve and was thoroughly delighted. I cannot imagine why this classic series has not achieved the same status in the United States. This first volume in the series follows the children of the Swallow family as they summer in the English lake country. The story charts their adventures as they sail, camp, discover nature around them interact with each other and two girls from a houseboat (the Amazons). It is a lovely wistful book that evokes the grandeur of childhood games in nature. In the background of the story is a faint hint of the World War (the Swallows' father is in the Navy) but the sense that the children are being sheltered from adult concerns but that only heightens the loveliness of their childhood lives.

Budding anglophile children who love the English details of the Harry Potter books or the Narnia Chronicles should love the depiction of these children. (Although there is no magic in Ransome's series of books other than the ordinary magic of childhood.) It would also be an excellent choice for children who love nature or are learning to sail. I imagine it would be equally well-loved by both boys and girls. The illustrations are charming and in some of the books the diagrams of boats are quite detailed.

Love this book! I read it for the first time this summer at age 43. I can't wait to finish our current read-aloud and start it. My freedom craving boy will love it! Still, with a pre-teen boy could they have found a better name for the child than "T*&ty" ?? I'll try to see if I can change it to cut down the giggles............. Outstanding adventure and so cool that the parents could let the kids do that!