Robinhound Crusoe

Adventures of Wishbone #4

by Caroline Leavitt

As he and Joe try to get to the eight-grade basketball game in time, Wishbone the dog imagines himself as Robinson Crusoe, the sole survivor of a shipwreck who lived on a deserted islandfor nearly thirty years.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Middle Grade, Chapter Books, Mystery, Animals, Retellings

142 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1997

About the author

Caroline Leavitt is the New York Times bestselling author of Cruel Beautiful World, Is This Tomorrow, With or Without You, Pictures of You (Algonquin Books), which. Pictures of You was on the Best Books of the Year lists from the San Francisco Chronicle, The Providence Journal, Bookmarks and Kirkus Reviews. It was also a Costco Pennie's Pick. Is This Tomorrow was long listed for the Main Readers Prize, a WNBA Reading group Choice, A San Francisco Chronicle Lit Pick/Editor's Choice, a Jewish Book Club Pic and the winner of an Audiofile Earphones Award.

Her 13th novel DAYS OF WONDER will be published by Algonquin/Hatchette in the spring of 2024.

The winner of a New York Foundation of the Arts Grant, a second prize winner in Goldenberg Fiction Prize, A Sundance Screenwriting Lab Finalist, a Nickelodeon Screenwriting Fellowship Finalist and a National Magazine Award Nominee, Leavitt is a senior writing instructor at UCLA and Stanford online and a freelance manuscript consultant. Her work has appeared in New York Magazine, Psychology Today, Salon,More, and more.
She has been featured on The Today Show and profiled in the New York Times.

You can reach her through www.carolineleavitt.com. On twitter @leavittnovelist. On Instagram @carolineleavitt and FB https://www.facebook.com/carolineleav... @carowriter99

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both of the stories contained here were very exciting! However, I don't remember ever watching an episode like this; maybe I need to check YouTube to see this fun yarn in celluloid format.

[Mom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was well-written and probably deserves a higher rating, but even though it was another cute adventure I didn't enjoy it as much because the story is sad. I don't think that I want to read the book this one is based on.

[Jenny Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, a cute book with Wishbone. I have never like the Adventures as much as the Classics, since the Adventures have chapters for modern day, which I think take away space needed to tell the story. The authors usually do a good job of keeping the modern day with Joe narrative relevant to the story they are retelling, however. This one was good, and there were not as many modern day chapters as in some others, so I do think is one of the better ones from this particular Wishbone series.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all I never read Robinson Crusoe nor did I get a chance to see this actual episode if it was one. If I get the chance will I read the whole book or another version like an Illustrated Classic? Truthfully I cannot say since there was too much similarities with this particular book and "Swiss Family Robinson", which I do enjoy.

The actual reading of the Wishbone story is easy to understand but doesn't have the exact Wishbone flair that I am used to. Although Wishbone was his normal personality-style and cute Joe is a secondary character made first while it doesn't do the story any good. His own adventures made it flat while I felt that the story didn't end right.

The story may be a good one for younger audiences or other more lenient Wishbone fans but for me it fell flat. Not as bad as the super mystery I read but not as good as Wishbone Classics "Romeo & Juliet".

[Noelle Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talk about being taken back to ones childhood. I used to watch Wishbone all the time growing up and it exposed me to some great books. Robinson Crusoe being a book I was exposed to because of Wishbone (the show also explaining my liking of Jack Russell Terriers). We need more shows like Wishbone to encourage a new generation to pick up classics like this one, even if it's been tweaked for the show. I think I went looking for the original after I read this.

[Twyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite part was when robinhound got home safely after going on a ship in a huge storm.the bad part was when he was a castaway on an island after being in a really huge storm.the best character is wishbone the dog who imagines himself as Robinson Crusoe.the bad character is the cannibals who was going to eat Robinson's friend.Auryn 9yo

[Mark Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to rate this one five stars because it was the first chapter book that I ever read on my own. I remember when I was finished my mom wrote my name and the date in the cover to remember it. The book probably got thrown away sometime in the last 20 years but I'll always remember it!

#neverforget

[Carmen K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really got into this book. I think I'm going through a second childhood. I was interested in learning if Joe would make it to his game on time. And I love the way it is interwoven with Robinson Crusoe.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of all the Robinson Crusoe adaptations for children I've read, this is the first modern one. Published in 1997, this is part of the Wishbone series and alternates between a version of Defoe's novel and the modern adventures of the titular Jack Russell terrier and his owner, a sixth grader named Joe. Joe has an important basketball game to get to, but his mom is out and a storm has caused a mass blackout. This forces Joe and Wishbone to navigate their way across newly unfamiliar terrain on Joe's bicycle and learn Very Important Lessons about resourcefulness.

I was too old for the Wishbone franchise when it was popular, so I'm not familiar with its tropes. Is Crusoe here supposed to be a human or a dog? He's illustrated as a dog and described in canine terms (he has paws, wants chew toys, and uses his mouth to hold tools) but he also complains about the sun burning his fair skin and needing new clothes and marries a schoolteacher at the end and has children. I guess kids don't notice or care?

I was also disappointed to see the "savage" portrayal of indigenous people appear in such a recent book. Even Friday is initially described using that extremely loaded word. No, it's not nearly as bad as the 19th- and early 20th-century adaptations (at least Wishbone dropped the "Master" part) but can we please stop with this stubbornly persistent remnant of colonial propaganda already? There is no evidence that the Carib Indians (Friday's identified tribe in the original) actually were cannibals, aside from a few missionary accounts of very limited war rituals (not the frenzy Defoe depicted). Their modern descendants, the Kalinago of Dominica, vehemently deny it.

On the other hand, Friday and his father remain together, possibly to make the story more appealing to children. One adaptation I read from 1830 portrayed Friday as an adolescent who bonds with Crusoe as his new dad, the justification being that "savage" parents don't care about their kids the way "civilized" ones do. So that was nice.

[Leslie Carnahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found a few Wishbone books at a thrift store and picked them up for some nostalgic reading. I ended up bringing them to the house that I'm dog sitting for. One of the dogs hate silence, so usually when I'm over I end up reading to him out loud just to make him feel better. This time, I thought it would be fun to have a dog related story to read to him. He was out within 15 minutes and I finished the book by myself. Lol but regardless it was a fun time and it reminded me of my childhood and how much I loved the wishbone TV series. I have two other wishbone books with me and plan on reading those two said pup in the coming days. I really enjoyed this and I really enjoyed looking at Caroline's bio to see what other books she's written since the wishbone books. :)

[Kerri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an interesting one for me as it's the first Wishbone book I've read where I've also read the book it was based off of. I did not like Robinson Crusoe all that much but it was interesting to see how it was adapted and edited. TH1 liked it ok and says her favorite part was when he was surprised by Poll talking. We did take some large breaks between reading it and she didn't seem all that upset by the breaks.


She liked the end of the Joe/Wishbone story because it had cake

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is a fun way to introduce younger readers to the classics.

[Kami · Rating 4 out of 5]

- I haven't read Robinson Crusoe, but Wishbone is SO good at getting readers excited about a story, and now I want to read the original. It probably isn't as fun as Wishbone makes it sound, but I still want to read it.

- I didn't know that Robinson Crusoe was on that island for SO long! Whoa! I would go crazy and pray for a quick death. Gnome really liked how Robinson survived for so many years on the island. It is pretty impressive on how he finds food and makes things.

- I liked Joe's part of the story. Even though he was scared and worried, and he was trying to get to an important basketball game, he stopped to help a little girl, and he was concerned for his mom. He also didn't want to let his teammates down. Joe is a good guy!

- I don't think they made this story into a Wishbone episode. I haven't been able to find one.

[Cws]

JMAR4-Wis

[Jerrilynn Lilyblade]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12639304

[Paula Greenfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this a wonderful book about a boy and his dog. The dog (Wishbone) has a great imagation and loved to tell classic tales which makes a great combination of stories.

[Hope]

i only read part of it