Amazon Adventure

Hal & Roger Hunt Adventures #1

by Willard Price

Long Island teenagers Hal and Roger Hunt explore uncharted Amazon River with their father, expert naturalist John Hunt for his exotic animal collection. Someone sends an anonymous telegram, so John returns. Alone, the boys face hostile natives, dangerous rapids and wild animals, and a hunchback with bloodshot eyes.

Genres: Adventure, Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult, Animals, Travel, American

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Willard DeMille Price was born in Peterborough, Ontario, and moved to the US when he was four. He got his MA and Litt.D from Columbia. He held a special interest for natural history, ethnology and exploration and made numerous expeditions for the American Museum of Natural History and the National Geographic Society. Price also went on to edit various magazines on travel and world affairs and spent six years working in Japan as foreign correspondent for New York and London newspapers. He travelled in seventy-seven countries before his death in 1983.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a fantastic adventure.
But... it was missing 2 vital things. But we'll get to that.
I can't believe that this book was written before Google was around. I can't imagine the amount of research that went into this novel.
It is fantastically educational. Every animal mentioned in the story I know a lot better now. And I know a ton of things about the Amazon that I'd never heard about before.
It's a great adventure, as I mentioned before, and the ending was actually very exciting with quite a few interesting plot twists.
But here's the things this story was missing:
1) An emotional side. It was really hard to actually become worried about any of the dangerous things happening in this story, because it was difficult to be attached to any of the characters. I mean, most of the characters weren't even given names. Quite a lot of them were just referred to as "the Indians". However the named characters were characterised well, but not quite well enough.
The second thing this novel is missing is 2) Any female characters whatsoever. Seriously. Here's the list of female characters that I spotted: "Mother" (characterised only by a single telegram), a boa constrictor, a tapir, and a manatee. That's it. (Girls could have made this story soo much better.)
Other than this, the story was enjoyable and incredibly interesting. It has definitely made me appreciate more those crazy adventurers of the past who brought us so much knowledge about the animal world.

[সালমান হক · Rating 4 out of 5]

ছোটবেলায় ভীষণ অরণ্য পড়ার দিনগুলোয় ফিরে গিয়েছিলাম এক মুহূর্তের জন্যে। যখন বইটা লেখা হয়েছিল, তখন কিন্তু চাইলেই উইকিপিডিয়া, গুগলের সাহায্য নেয়া যেত না। লেখককে সাধুবাদ।

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

The more I read of the book, the more I got into it! It's easy to read, and parts of it are really humorous. The descriptions of the animals and how they acted and moved were really good, some of which I had to Google to see what they looked like.
I feel maybe that some of the serious moments in the book were slightly overlooked.
I really enjoyed it though, especially the ending. I would never have been able to survive on a 'floating island' like Hal and Roger did!

[Harold Ogle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a classic children's adventure novel from 1949. John Hunt is a zookeeper for a zoo on Long Island, and he spends much of his time traveling the world to rescue and acquire animal specimens for the zoo. As the story begins, he has decided that his two sons, Hal (nineteen) and Roger (thirteen) are finally old enough to join him on an expedition. This expedition will take them deep into Western Brazil, in the unexplored sections of one of the Amazon's tributaries, where they will hire native guides to take them downriver. But while they are in Quito, preparing to fly through the Andes, an emergency calls John away, and his sons convince him to let them continue with the journey. It is possible, however, that the emergency was fabricated by a mercenary hired by enemies to scuttle the expedition. The enemy follows the Hunt boys through the upper peaks of the mountains and into the lower slopes of the Andes where the rivers begin to flow down and east toward the ocean. A number of attempts are made on the boys' lives as they travel downriver, eventually moving from tributaries to the great Amazon river herself. As the rivers widen, so they increase the size of their vessels, in order to store more and more of the exotic animals that they encounter and claim for the zoo.

This book was definitely written in a different era, with a different sense of what is appropriate for young readers. I read this first when I was in sixth grade, finding it in my grade school library and taking it home because I couldn't bear to put it down before I'd finished it. There's a lot of slapstick (usually at Roger's expense) but also some very grim, very gory vignettes, including the indelible image that burned its way into my young brain...the bad guys, who have been chasing the boys through most of the book, step up their pursuit with hijacking, kidnapping, gun fights, which culminates in a narrow escape for the boys and a relentless, days-long chase sequence down the river. But the villains run afoul of a native tribe, attempting to fight their way through rather than deal peaceably, and in the morning the boys are dismayed to see the villains still following them in their canoe...but as the canoe comes closer, they see that all of the men have been beheaded, and the canoe drifts past them crewed with dead men on its way out to the sea...that image, of the drifting canoe of headless men, will remain with me to the end of my days. My mom glommed onto my interest immediately, and in addition to providing me with plenty of additional information about the Amazon, she drew a rendition of a map of the entire Amazon basin with all the cities and major tributaries marked in color, and pasted it into that book on the inside cover. Like so much of my mom's artwork, it exists somewhere in the public space, for all to enjoy. At least, I like to think that it hasn't been recycled in the intervening years.

Rereading the book, it is still a gem (and probably the best of the "Adventure" series), even though it is dated after sixty-four years.

[James Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to rate all of the Willard Price books as four stars. Not because I think they're all that special (hell, they're basically the works of an eco-terrorism apologist), but because, when I was twelve, they were THE BEST BOOKS I'D EVER READ. I lapped them up. Loved 'em.

[Jax · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, I read this book in order to complete a task in a reading challenge. I only mention this so that you'll understand, it's not something I would ordinarily have picked up.

Having said that - it wasn't all that bad. But there were still too many things that irritated, or annoyed me, that I can only really say that it was an O.K read - even taking into account that it was written decades ago, and is now probably very outdated.
Though I suppose it could also be argued that it was written well enough that the characters or their actions were able to irritate me.

It definitely has a certain amount of educational merit (geographical, zoological etc), but at best it highlighted the worst of human nature, our inability to leave well enough alone our utter belief that WE are in the right and the astounding ability to destroy.

Now, I've never thought of myself as particularly environmentally conscience, but upon reading this I discovered otherwise. My inner-environmentalist was having a fit (and often had not-so-complimentary things to say along the way!). Add to that a certain lack of plausibility in certain scenes (such as out-running an annoyed jaguar), and my utter annoyance at young Rogers' character (as every time his grubby little hand reached for a weapon, I hoped he'd shoot himself in the foot) and you find my reasoning behind my choice of rating.

The writing itself wasn't bad. But overall I don't think the story was all that it could have been.
(environmental outrage aside.)

[Jon Shanks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved these books as a child. Between the school and public library I probably read all of Willard Price's Adventure books before I reached double digits. Cracking stories full of exciting exploits and natural history facts. So, I was rereading with a little trepidation, worried that the old magic wouldn't be there anymore. However, although it is a little worrying how easily the boys reach for the guns and how distasteful the idea of catching animals to sell to circuses and zoos are, at the core is still an enjoyable read that takes me back to carefree younger times.

[Allana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series. Although this book isn't my favourite in the series I still enjoy it even though I've read it a few times. Simple but fun and interesting
it's also good that you learn some things about the animals and the Amazon (though not all the fact are accurate) and it's always interesting seeing all the different ways they use to catch the animals (and bad guys!)

[Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A fun adventure story for middle graders, but it is definitely dated. I deducted 0.5 stars for some incorrect identifying language and insensitivity regarding Indigenous peoples as well as some issues with current ideas on conservation and interaction with primitive societies.

I will admit that there was childhood nostalgia heavily attached to this book and a modern reread of it did somewhat crush my spirit because of how much I remembered loving this as a middle grade reader. However, the story is still good for action and introduces the reader to some interesting locations and animals. There is a lot of educational information in the plot, but a discussion of some of the outdated ideas and attitudes would be a great idea if you are planning a read with a younger child.

[Malcolm Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written and based at a time where terms like 'animal cruelty' and 'animal conservation' were not fully fledged, Willard Price's Adventures may be a bit much for the sensibilities for some of today's readers, young and less young. They are very much of their time which should be taken into consideration in regards to the portrayal of the native Amazonians.
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way... This story was an enjoyable traipse down the Amazon river. The boys see many of the Amazon's marvels and risk life and limb collecting them. You can tell that Willard Price had actually been to many of the places he wrote about by the almost David Attenborough level of natural history in these pages. Having grown up with these books myself, a lot of what I know about the natural world came from this series of books. It's been at least 25 years since I last read this and I still remember the vapire bat scene vividly (I had forgotten most of the rest).
As usual with this type of adventure story, the luck level that the boys have is turned all the way up to that of Tintin in terms of being able to survive anything that's thrown at them, be it poison arrows, waterfalls, jaguars, army ants and malaria, to name a few. I almost expected them to find Tintin on the floating island.
The bad guy in the story did feel a little tacked on, there were perils enough from the river and jungle without the need to add 'Greedy evil white guy'.

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a very informative adventure, a mixture of nature-documentary and boyish fun. Unfortunately, when I say boyish, I mean there are no women in this story, and you will learn of a new adverb: "manfully". The racism toward Indians and the callous dismissal / gloss-over of serious tragedies toward humans and animals were pretty offensive, and I couldn't really get past that. That said, the research and information packed into a story for kids is pretty impressive, and if the other aspects weren't so offensive I would recommend this to young readers.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

sometimes books one reads as a child do not hold up.

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

possibly read in winter 1967

[Soho_Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been a collector of book series from a young age. I started with complete collections of Enid Blyton’s “Famous Five” series, as well as the slightly lesser known “Secret Seven”. This was followed by “The Chronicles of Narnia”, although with only seven books in that series, that was easy enough. As I got slightly older, I came across Willard Price’s “Adventure” books and made sure I had a full set of those, although it’s rare that I find anyone who was as big a fan of those books as I was.

The first in this collection in “Amazon Adventure” and follows the journey of the Hunt family, father John and brothers Hal and Roger. John Hunt is an animal collector, who travels to capture animals for private collections and zoos and his plan is to travel the Amazon for this purpose. The Hunts are not without enemies and after being threatened by a stranger before they even leave, a suspicious fire back at home on Long Island calls John Hunt home, leaving the boys to complete the journey alone.

Hal and Roger travel down the Amazon on various craft, collecting all kinds of animals along the way, from things as small as a bat, to as large as an anaconda and from as cute and cuddly as a marmoset to as deadly as a jaguar. There are potential threats from the locals and an obvious threat from the man who had threatened Hal in Quito and who is chasing them down the river aiming to steal their ship and animals and not caring whether they survive the attempt.

Price’s writing generally flows very well and the pace of the novel is very high. He writes in simple terms and these days, it would probably be considered YA fiction. However, as a former natural history writing, his descriptions of the animals are very detailed, but without affecting the pace of the story. There are a couple of moments where he perhaps goes in a little too much detail and the tone becomes a little drier, but these are rare and whilst the change of tone and pace of the writing are noticeable, they never last for long and don’t really interrupt the flow.

Perhaps the main failing of Price’s writing is that the character building is fairly weak. The boys are brothers, so a relationship between them can be assumed, but with all the action in quite a short book, there isn’t space for this to be explored. The people they ask to help them along the way are also rarely described in any depth and we learn little about them along the way, other than that they are intelligent and resilient. There is also an issue with the age of the book meaning that some of the costs quoted are very low and some of the language used is a little outdated, as are some of the attitudes, but these are minor issues.

As a fan of animals and fast-paced writing, I have long enjoyed the “Adventure” series, although the older I get, the more the flaws become a little more obvious. But whilst this does take some of the edge off, this is a strong opening to a decent series and one I am still able to enjoy more than thirty years after first discovering it.

[Marc Sebastian Head · Rating 3 out of 5]

My God but I used to devour these when I was a boy! I remember a trip to Oberammergau in the Black Forest, and visiting the nearby American/Canadian base library (which we had access to for reasons). I'm pretty sure it was the librarian there who first turned me on to them, and what a great call.

They're hardly literature, but for a schoolboy, they're gold dust. Adventure, exploration, peril, exotic animals, you name it. Sort of a more adventurous Famous Five vibe. Through this series you to got to explore the world, discover exciting beasts but learn how to overcome them, and also beat the bad guys, often alone without adult help, because kids rule.

They have definitely aged. The setting actually helps with the adventure, as there's no GPS or satellite phone to help them. No doubt some readers might complain about capturing animals, or imperialism, or insensitive language regarding other cultures. When you read the book there is no harm meant, and actually it does try to educate and play fair, as far as the norms at the time permitted. These books are harmless fun.

Price loves to teach us as he goes along, loves a contrivance, and populates the Amazon with deadly and exciting creatures behind seemingly every tree. As an adult its sometimes ludicrous, but as a boy it was magnificent. At an age when you feel it is deadly necessary to know about things like quicksand and the Bermuda triangle, the little tidbits on how to deal with wild animals feel like essential knowledge. Lots of fun.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

First book in my quest to read the Willard Price Adventure Series books in order.

Amazon Adventure begins with dad John Hunt taking his two boys Hal and Roger on an expedition to the uncharted Amazon to collect wild animals for sale to zoos. In a Blyton-esque twist Mr Hunt gets called away half way through as there is a mysterious arson attack at their Florida property. Therefore their very livelihood depends on the boys' success.

Danger lurks at every turn with the gang who destroyed their ranch in hot pursuit, wild animals everywhere and obtrusive natives the boys have to survive on their wits.

Mr Hunt promises them a trip to the South Seas if they are successful.

These books contain everything for youngsters, thrills, adventure, learning about different animals.

I feel this one was quite light, I remember as a youngster liking some of the later adventures more such as Gorilla or Lion adventure. But a good start for the series none the less.

PS I had thought I owned the whole series, but it turns out I am missing one or two including the next in the series, South Sea Adventure.

Also missing Whale Adventure and Arctic Adventure.

reviews for all the others to follow in due course.

[DJ_Keyser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Willard Price’s Adventure series is as formative to my self as any other works across all mediums, and Amazon Adventure was its genesis. First published in 1949, I first discovered it back in ‘93 as a 10 year old, and it sparked a voracious appetite for reading and discovery that is set to last me a life-time*. It also ignited fascination in and adoration of our natural world, with particular passion for exotic wildlife and locations. Price’s first Adventure novel sees the young Hal and Roger Hunt embark on a floating zoological expedition down the Amazon River, and is jam-packed with all manners of exploits that I’d challenge any young adolescent not to find themselves captivated by, even today. I really enjoyed taking myself back in time to one of my most treasured reading memories, and intend to plough through the rest of the series, as there were a couple Adventure books I didn’t get around to reading as a young’n because my library didn’t have them.

*Special shout-outs also due to Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree series for giving me a head-start, and Franklin W. Dixon’s Hardy Boys series for sustaining the momentum built.

[Samar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book because it’s very adventurous. The bothers are Hal and Robert who are the main characters who have sent off on an adventure in the amazon jungle where they meet animals to capture and give them to zoos around the world. The fist animal they encounter is a vampire bat which was sucking Roberts’s blood. They dint know what it was at first then they released that it was a vampire bat and they captured it. a day after they capture it they found tout that the way it sucks loo is I by spitting this numbing anaesthetic then it flicks out its tongue and starts piercing its skins and that’s how its sucking the blood.
The funniest part was when they encountered a basilisk lizard and guess what they thought it was a ghost. Roger said “it must be a ghost” and then I did a note which said “you Dumbo they have webbed feet that creates a bubble under it that pops but the quick lizard is already on the other foot.”
I didn’t give it 5 stars because it had really strange words and some parts I really didn’t get.

[Emily Sims · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: This book features two main characters, Hal and Roger. These two boys set out on an adventure with their father to the Amazon. Their expedition ends up getting off course and their father has to return but the boys stay. Read to find what happens to Hal and Roger and if they make it back home!

Evaluation: I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to read to upper grades in elementary school. The descriptions in this book are great and help draw the reader in to the text. Because this is a chapter book and poses some challenging words and is lengthy, I would not suggest it for younger elementary readers unless they are excelling readers.

Teaching: I could incorporate this book into a science classroom. We could read the book together throughout the course of a unit and discuss different environmental features we think were present during the boy's adventure to the Amazon. We could also discuss the animals discussed in the books and do more research on them when discussing life science.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

We purchased the Hal & Rogers Adventure Series book for our boys when they were younger and have shared them with many friends. I myself have never read them, this past weekend I discovered the audio version was available for the Amazon Adventure, it’s not long, just over 6 hours a perfect fit for our road trip.

Canadian born author Willard Price wrote this series of 14 books beginning in the late 1930s. It’s a series that my husband inhaled as a boy, he loved reading about the different adventures these brothers went on throughout the world - African Adventure, Whale Adventure, South Sea, Underwater (to name a few). Sometimes compared to The Hardy Boys these stories have the added outdoor adventures at the same time solving mysteries, getting out of tough jams and learning so much about nature and different critters.

I enjoyed my time listening to the Amazon Adventure, sometimes witty, others times educational -learning about different cultures. Maybe a little dated but still a great adventure without technology getting in the way.

[Gavin Wask · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to venture back in time to a series of books I loved as an 11-year-old. Willard Price's Adventure's books engrossed me for hours upon hours.

The stories follow Hal and Roger Hunt, two teenage brothers, working for their famous Animal Collector father - John Hunt. There is information galore about different animals as the boys collects animals as they venture along The Amazon. From Jaguars to Anaconda's, to Tapirs and Vampire Bats.

All the while, there is a human adventure element as well, a rival collector and his hired thugs, who think nothing of disposing of young lads along The Amazon.

I did go back in time, but in today's world, the book written in the 50's doesn't always sit well, the boys are the heroes and they love and care for their animals, but it is still a bit close to the bone about captivity and selling animals as well as attitudes to the natives and use of firearms.

I still enjoyed it, but am really not sure how much of that was through my childhood's eye's. I'll give the next one - The South Sea Adventure a go and let you know.

[Neville Ridley-smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using the word dated doesn't seem appropriate for this book.

The zoological knowledge is all still relevant and that's one of the great things about a book like this - that you can actually learn something while being entertained. Also, capturing creatures and putting them in zoos is still a valid pursuit - it's just called conservation.

Also there's a hint of MacGyver - it was fun to see what Hal did on the floating island to make deal with water/food/fire.

The storytelling could be a bit better but that's about the only mild negative.

Recommended

[The Book Squirrel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action, adventure, survival, environment, conservation...
I loved these books when I was a kid. At the time, they seemed to border on sci-fi regarding the at-the-time-amazing technology the boys used.
Of course, looking back you can see how these stories are flawed, but I still think they are enjoyable. In fact, it would make for a really interesting middle school science project for children to read one of these books and then compare them with the knowledge of the world and technology we have today.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazon Adventure (Hal & Roger Hunt Adventures #1) by Willard Price

Enjoyable childhood read
“Us?” Hal’s analytical brain was working hard. “It can’t be a personal grudge. You get along with everybody. You haven’t any personal enemies. It can’t be political—you don’t mix in politics. There are lots of revolutionaries in these Latin American countries with axes to grind, but you’ve never had anything to do with that sort of thing. So it must be economic.”

[Theo Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

- This book was better than the other books I've read in the series so far, it had an overall plot, and many different subsections of problems and resolutions, and I also found the animals Price described to be interesting to read about.
- I would recommend this to anyone who likes adventure or learning about animals.

[Kate Pendlenton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather dated now in its attitude towards killing rare animals, or capturing them for zoos and circuses! But my 8yo son, to whom I read this, really enjoyed it, finding it exciting and gripping. I too loved these books as a child so it's fun to revisit them.

[Hannahgamble123hotmail.Com · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good adventure. There was some unnecessary killing of animals in it and also a guy called Aqua who was killed by an anaconda which was sad.

[Shanaka Rusith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and educational. One of the books i will never forger. One of the most enjoyed books

[DMackD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't get enough of these books as a boy. And will enjoy giving them to my kids to read soon...

[Thomas Carr · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great series that encouraged me to read in my early teens.