Seabird (1948 original; edició 1978)

Loved reading through this story about a history through a family's eyes. So much information about whaling and more in surprisingly few pages that perfectly captures the lives of the characters within. Really a treasure. ( )

A seabird carved by Ezra Borwn while a child on a whaling ship, gets passed down generation to generation, son to son.
The story of the family business changing from whaling, to clippers, to steam engines, to oil-burning is fascinating. ( )

I didn't think I was going to like this as much as Pagoo and Paddle but we got to the end of the book and were all a little choked up. I just love Holling C Holling. The illustrations are always wonderful and the story is always poignant. The kids loved it too. ( )

Wouldn't this be a good book to give alongside Moby Dick? Holling does quite a bit of explaining the whaling industry as he recounts the generations of sailors who own a small carved bird. Not a book to read all at once, but my children enjoyed it well enough. If you ask them, they'd tell you they liked it a lot.