Here, Buster!

by Archie Binns

The story about an orphaned baby seal. The original title is Here, Buster!. Illustrated by by Ted Hanke. 215 pages.

Genres: Animals, Childrens

Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

Reviews

[karen]

to celebrate arrested development day, i show off this amazing book that connor got for me one time. look at that cover! you know what is going to happen next, don't you?? this book is from 1954 which proves that arrested development is such a great show that people time-traveled just to watch it. and then went back and wrote children's books about it.

alternate covers:



take two:



THE SEAL IS FOR MARKSMANSHIP!

and just 'cuz:













fifteen new episodes.



COME ON!

[Phinehas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my second favorite book as a little kid, my first being Sea Wolf by Jack London. I'm noticing a pattern.

[Wayne Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thirteen year old Clint Barlow lives with his dad Jim, who is a logging trucker, his mom, and his two dogs Wolf and Jerry, at Barlow’s Landing on Hood Canal in the Puget Sound region of Washington State. One day while sailing around the Sound, Clint finds a newborn baby seal whose mother has been shot and killed. He brings the little thing home, cares for it, and names it Buster. It becomes a pet. However, as Buster grows into an adult seal, his laughable antics begin to cause trouble in the neighborhood, the majority of it totally unintentional and mostly harmless. But something will eventually need to be done. What will it be? When the time comes, will Clint have the strength to do it? And what will ultimately happen to Buster?

This story of a boy and his seal provides an enjoyable window to childhood in Washington during the mid-twentieth century. The original publication had illustrations by Robert Candy. When Scholastic republished the book, they had new illustrations by Ted Hanke and renamed it Here, Buster! However, later Scholastic editions returned the original title. There are a few common euphemisms (darn, gee, heck) and some references to seal evolution from bears and other things that are said to have taken place millions of years ago. Also, Clint’s dad smokes a pipe. Though some critics may think that it is dated by its gender-defined roles of mother and father, the truth is that it presents a good picture of a happy, well-adjusted family that those of us who hold to a Biblical worldview will appreciate. Kirkus Reviews said, “Not another Yearling, but in its own heartfelt way, good reading.” I agree.

[Stephanie A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a heady rush of sweetness. It's always nice to disappear for a couple of hours back into a simpler time, where people with good intentions (and sufficient experience with animal husbandry) can rescue an orphaned baby seal, raise it into adulthood, and keep it as a pet (because it refuses to stay gone when you try to free it) without any government interference.

So yeah, absolute joy to follow along on Buster's adventures dancing to music, peering in windows, playing in the sea and swimming alongside boats, gulping all the fish he can eat (supplemented with milk stolen directly from cows, who seem marvelously chill about letting a giant gallumphing flipper-creature not only sidle up to them in the pasture but latch on), nodding his head in apparent agreement, and generally being exactly the kind of playful delight you imagine a pet seal being. Even if you do have to contend with the downside of no laws preventing you from keeping wildlife, namely that there are also no laws preventing fishermen from shooting them at will.

(The ultimate solution is that, after a couple of years getting in and out of scrapes, Buster is sent to live in a zoo, where he gets to see/interact with tons of people daily and appears very happy.

The text is also peppered with a surprising amount of educational detail about sea life and similar based on Robbie's keen interest in oceanography, which I'm not sure is as smoothly integrated into the text as the author wanted it to be, but it certainly seems designed to feed (or pique) the curiosity of future little scientists.

Adding it to Goodreads now, I see there is apparently a sequel! So perhaps I'll get around to that at some point too.

[Hannah Knight · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pets require a lot of work and parents don't always want pets. Clint's pet was out of the ordinary. It was a seal named Buster. The boy took care of his pet and the pet went most places where the boy went. They were like two peas in a pod. Whether it was a good environment for the seal or not is to be determined, but the boy really loved having a pet.

[Sheryl Dougherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful mixture of magic and memories. A great reminder of why I loved this book as a child. Why I loved sailing and the ocean and of course seals!
It's a little dated as far as the views on roles of women and the normalcy of 12 & 13yr old out and about on their own in open water toting 22 rifles. Simpler times.

[Shay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books as a kid.

[Kevin Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this when I was a kid... loved it ! Fun and educational. To this day, I still think it would be fun to try a geoduck. Maybe some day =)

[Nola · Rating 3 out of 5]

A boy finds an abandoned seal pup and raises it (a la Andre) but eventually realizes he must find a new home for it as people in his region often shoot seals (the fate of the seal pups mother, and 'Buster' is shot and wounded later on) and it would be cruel to keep such an animal caged in the yard. At the end the seal finds a home at a marine park where he is still able to enjoy interacting with humans. The book is pretty much about waiting or what will be the last straw when the boy will realize that he cannot keep the seal and is ready to let go and put the needs of Buster above his own love for him

[Kassie Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book fell into my hands shortly after I had fallen in love with the adventures of Twain's boys and London's wild wonderland. This story has stayed with me my entire life, and I've often compared the story with the information I've since learned about these animals. Almost invariably, the two match up nicely, much to my bookwormy pleasure. As a mom, I've found that these stories fascinate my children as completely as they did me, and I'm thankful to have discovered that books like this are as factual as they are entertaining.