Odo Hirsch Reviews

Added August 6, 2004

Bartlett and the Ice Voyage

Author: Odo Hirsch
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Available At: Bookstores Everywhere
Publishing Date: October 2004
Genre: Middle Reader: Adventure/Fantasy
Format: Paperback
Price: $6.95
ISBN: 1582349185
Reviewer: Sharyn McGinty

Once there was a Queen who ruled over seven countries. She was loved by all her subjects and every year on her birthday she would receive wonderful and amazing gifts from each country. She had a rhinoceros and a giraffe, monkeys and wild cats of all shapes and sizes. Her subjects had also sent her foods from their countries: wonderful delicacies and exotic fruits, especially melidrops. Throughout all of her countries, it was agreed the melidrop was the most amazing fruit, with varied tastes depending on the variety and the time of day it was picked.

Every year, people would send the Queen crates and crates of melidrops. And every year, they would arrive completely rotten. For melidrop is only good for one day and would only grow in one place. No matter how many different ways the royal gardeners tried, they couldn't get a melidrop seed or plant to grow.

If the Queen could leave her country, she could have traveled and tasted a melidrop herself, but she couldn't leave not when she ruled seven countries. At the suggestion of Sutton Pufrock, a world famous traveler, the Queen sent for Bartlett. Bartlett was the best explorer/adventurer around and if anyone could succeed at bringing back a melidrop, he would be the one.

It was impossible. Bartlett couldn't believe they'd fetched him from the mountains to bring the Queen a melidrop. It couldn't be done, could it. To succeed, Bartlett would need Inventiveness, Desperation and Perseverance.

A completely magnificent tale. Bartlett and the Ice Voyage teaches many lessons as it entertains. Bartlett is always trying new ideas in his quest; he perseveres even when it looks like he will fail. And the Queen herself learns a lesson in patience. A virtue she'd never believed a Queen needed. Geared for younger readers, Bartlett and the Ice Voyage is a wonderful book for families to read aloud. Parents will enjoy the story as much as their children and the story lends itself to much discussion afterwards. Very highly recommended.

Don't forget to look for Bartlett and the City of Flames, another tale of the intrepid explorer.

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