Zeb

by Lonzo Anderson, Peter D. Burchard (Illustrator)

A boy survives winter in the colonial wilderness.

154 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

John Lonzo Anderson was born on March 1, 1905 outside of Ellijay, Georgia. He graduated from Harvard University in 1928 and married illustrator Adrienne Adams in 1935. Anderson and his wife collaborated on a number of children's books.

Reviews

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. Forced survival situation, does involve loss of family members, but is not graphic or overly psychological. Mostly focused on the process of obtaining food and shelter. This is one of the few older books about this era that doesn't treat the Native population as some kind of basic threat. Actually, I really liked how they were handled in the writing.

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to read a book with nearly zero interaction. Zeb is alone (with his dog) in the wilderness for months. There was essentially no historical connection - though this is set in colonial America, it could just as well be a hundred years later. I felt the occasional incursion of what seemed to me a modern-day viewpoint.

Mostly it was a good book, though not especially remarkable. The survival story has been told before. I've never read Hatchet, but it seems that they might be similar. I myself was reminded of "To Build a Fire" by Jack London, which I read as a kid many years ago. It probably has little in common with that, but it made me think of it for the first time in ages.

The only reason I own this book is because I happened to recognize the author's name - he was the husband of illustrator Adrienne Adams. Oddly, she does not illustrate, but Peter Burchard does a nice job.

[DilanAc · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up from a discarded book pile because I am always interested in wilderness survival things. From that perspective it was interesting, but as a story it was disappointing. The character was not developed. Emotions were simply names rather than shown. The interaction with Indians which was dropped in early on was resolved in a most unsatisfying way toward the very end. And of course the idea that this was the Indians' land that his family was so presumptuously claiming was never addressed but of course this was written in the 1960s. Some of the description is interesting but some of it is too detailed as if it were an instruction manual on how to make and maintain a fire. And I could never really see the place except maybe with the description of the ice storm.

[AnnaMay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The girls loved all of the descriptions of what Zeb did to find ways to survive in the wilderness.

We loved it!