A can-do adventure

I discovered this book when I was in fourth grade. I was a voracious, omnivorous reader but painfully shy. My adventure in life was almost entirely experienced vicariously through the novels I gobbled up.

"Call it Courage" was one book I read over and over and eventually bought so that I could read it even more. Like Mafatu, I was a shy, skinny, awkward child who got picked on by the stronger, more competent kids. Like him, I felt as though I didn't belong. Avidly I followed his adventures as he left home all alone to seek adventure on another island some distance from his. There he was shipwrecked with nothing more than a knife and his faithful dog. His tale of survival, as he learned to hunt and fish for himself and eventually outwitted a tribe of enemy warriors, I replayed endlessly in my daydreams.

Unlike Mafatu, I didn't go off to an island all alone to survive. My life after I left home WAS a matter of survival in terrible circumstances, but that's another, uglier tale (my life is much better now, thank you). Reading "Call It Courage" led me to other books with similar themes, such as "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell, "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George and "The Mysterious Island" by Jules Verne. Maybe reading these tales of survival against all odds helped me in creating a happy conclusion to my own survival story. They'll certainly make good reading for any child interested in good, solid adventure.