Gulliver's Travels

by Malvina G. Vogel (Adapter), Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift's fantastic tale adapted for young readers.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Childrens, Fantasy, Adventure, Young Adult, Novels

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Nadin Doughem]

In the land of the dwarfs and in the land of the giants. A story abridged and illustrated for young readers. Was amusing and cute, however not my cup of tea.

My FOURTH read for this vacation!!😍😜😁

[BookishStitcher]

This was an extremely fast read, and I was hoping to count it towards reading all of the books of the Great American Read that I hadn't read yet. Alas after research this edition was heavily abridged. So I probably should go find another edition and read it again. I don't know if I really want to do that though.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library)]

A fun, kid-friendly adaptation of a beloved classic.

[Kevin Findley]

Another excellent adaptation by Malvina Vogel for GIC. Much of the satire that Swift put into his works is toned down or gone, but this is for the younger set, so it's not a loss for them, only the parents who might be reading it to them.

The difference between being powerful and powerless is still on full display however. Gulliver goes from controlling the destiny of entire nations to being little more than a circus animal on display, and treated far worse.

If used correctly by parents, this can be an excellent tool for teaching kids how to conduct themselves and treat others when they are in the same positions later in life. The lessons can apply to personal and professional relationships. That they are also fun to read is just a bonus for everyone.

Find it! Buy it! READ IT!

[Vijay]

One of the earliest political and sociological satires. A crucial lesson from reading Gulliver's Travels is to know the importance of language in preserving the culture and lifestyle of people living in a particular region. This work also makes us realize the importance of politeness and tact in handling situations filled with human foolishness. What could be a better way for Gulliver to know all these other than an incredible voyage!

[for-much-deliberation ...]

Follow Gulliver as he encounters the Lilliputians, the Brobdingnag giants, the Laputa scientists, hmmm, who doesn't he meet, makes you want to be a castaway for a while.

[Judith]

heavily abridged children's version. more folk tale than satire.

[Marc Berube]

I like the amount of imagination the writer put in this book.

[Beki Eikum]

Strange flow of plot but fine for reading with a six year old. Kept us both guessing. The amount of made up words was striking (Brobdingham, Glumdalclitch... etc)!

[Brandy Sharpe]

Better than the other versions which are vastly verbose.

[Sarah]

For an abridged copy, it is not bad, but this version eliminates most of Swift's satire and humour in favour of a simple adventure story. It also only includes the first two voyages, so the rest of the book goes unremarked on.

[Chris]

My eight year old gives it 5,000 stars past infinity.

[Emma Grove]

A bit ridiculous but a goofy and interesting classic! Was a very fun and quick read!!

[Kane B]

fun lil story

[Anabele Daukantaite]

Quite good i soppose

[Renee Boucher]

My son and I went through a period where we read a bunch of these great illustrated versions of classic books. They are easier to read and understand due to them being revised.

[Alexander Vasquez]

Insane story and meticulous detail to the execution. I need to read the last part again.

[Carissa Berrett]

Cute story and cute pictures

[Bjorn B]

November Book Report
Gulliver's Travels
Malvina G. Vogel (Adapter)

The remade classic book, Gulliver's Travels is about a doctor who likes to travel resulting for him ending up in two very different unknown lands. Gulliver is the main character who is searching for a way to make it back home to the world he knows. The only way he can accomplish this is to gain trust by the tiny people, and very huge people of these two unknown worlds. When he finally got home from being stranded with the little people. He goes back to sea, and gets stranded again, but this time with people over 50 feet tall. Gulliver finds himself in countless dangerous situations as he try to please the people tiny, and big people to be able to go back home to the normal world.

Gulliver's Travels has several themes, but the most noteworthy theme that the story expresses is to always be open minded. Gulliver has lost all of which is vital to him in the story. He can't go back to his family back in Europe. Also he is stranded in a two very different world, one with very tall people, and one with very little people. Gulliver always keeps an open mind and learns new languages from these two different people. He entertains, serves, and helps the people who have showed him mercy, when he was stranded. He learns how to read, and is accepted by the new people. He also humble asks if he can set sail to sea, to hopefully be able to find his family again.

[Clay C. 8]

The outstanding book Gulliver's Travels By Jonathan Swift is a book about a traveler that goes on island and is very big or very small. When he is big he helps with wars and captures the Belfuscudians the other war team so after 3 years he finds a boat and heads home to his family. Then when he is trying to go to Africa there is a big storm there boat gets misdirected to another island. On this island he is small and the people are 40 feet tall. He is found and taken care of by the splacknucks the tall people and in return he preforms for the people then goes home. I thought this book was very entertaining and never got boring there was always some thing going on. The author did a good job at getting your attention and keeping you to read the book. This book has great value because it is a adventure and has good ideas. The book could have had more talking so you knew what was going on it was very hard to keep on track with it. The characters voice was really good it was powerful and full of excitement. A life lesson is that if your big or small does not mean you can be mean to each other. He could have killed all of the Belfuscudians but he did not because its not the right thing to do.

[Isaiah N]

The book i'm doing my report on is ,Gullivers travels, I liked the book so you will like it, it is my favorite book I have ever read and I encourage you to read it, the book is about Gulliver traveling around the world. Gulliver is a man who wanted to see the world so he traveled on a boat, but then he crashes on an island, when Gulliver crashes on the island he is knocked out and laying on the ground tied up by the little people in their village. later on in the book Gulliver escapes from the village and ends up in another village, but the people on that island are nicer, then one time the castle catches on fire and spits on it then escapes where a bird picks him up and drops him on a boat were he travels bck home safely, even though he got back to his family and has had a bad experience he still travels.
the end.

[Katherine]

I read this abridged version in hopes that it would give me an overview of the story and pique my interest to read the original. It did not accomplish this task. I understand that the story is satire, painting a caricature of religious disputes, of the time period's conflicts between England and France, and of humankind in general; however, while I may agree with parts of Gulliver's view on humanity's tendency towards useless disputes, I certainly didn't enjoy the read. I suppose Swift actually did manage to accomplish his goal: "to inform, and not to amuse you."

[Avid]

NOTE: ONLY 80% READ

VERY FEW books have I ever actually quit because I could no longer endure something I found so agonizing it overrode any enjoyment the book had to offer. This was disheartening to me since I really enjoyed the book when I was younger. I don't know if it was the way it was read to me, my imagination, or a different version perhaps. This time each time all I kept thinking was, "Did that really add to the book in any way?" or "Man does this sound like Charlie Brown's teacher!" I have no interest in finishing the last 20% of the book nor do I recommend at least this version.

[ShepherdsDelight]

85/100 (= 5.0/6) ≈ 5 Stars

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Only half of the original story, so of course I'm wondering about the other two parts (about talking horses and flying islands). Maybe someday we'll check out a movie version with all four parts (I don't think the original unabridged novel will ever make it into my reading list).
For the kids, it was an extremely fun and very educational read.

[Jolie]

So...picked this up from a local library as part of a reading challenge for 2021. The category: a classic you’ve never read. And I have to say I still haven’t read it. LOL! I forgot that I had a comic book/graphic novel of GULLIVER’S TRAVELS as a kid, and I’m not sure which was a more simplistic version of the book, this edition or the comic book. Needless to say I feel as if it hardly qualifies as reading a classic...

[Harry Collier IV]

I have not ready the original but this book was fun. I bought the adapted version by mistake and will read the original soon.
I do realize that this book is lacking most of the satire and the substance of the original but it still was a decent afternoon read.

[Miley Family]

Taking this one week by week allowed for the children to ask questions and figure things out for themselves. They even wanted to act out portions of the book for family night. This was a fun way to get the children to enjoy.

[Thebookworm32]

I think that though I may have gone crazy. The smooth effortless flow of the book shows the story while creating the problem like a jigsaw. As you follow Gulliver into his new surroundings it creates a seamless problem and solution. This is to smooth to be true.

[Michelle]

I read this book to my two younger boys. It was a difficult book to get through, but a pretty good story. Even with the language revised for children to be able to understand, the names of characters and settings made the story difficult to read and follow.

[Heather Jacobsen]

Liked the story, but wasn’t impressed with the version. I don’t know what I was expecting. It’s a children’s version. I read it to my kids. But I’ve read plenty of other children’s books with good literary style...