The Button Boat

by Kathryn Swarthout and Glendon Swarthout

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385068247
• ISBN13: 9780385068246
• Release Date: January 1969
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.

Customer Reviews

newspaper reviews of The Button Boat when first published

"What a razzle-dazzle ring-a-ding movie it would make!" Kirkus Reviews "Two beaten-down children of the Depression triumph over a wicked stepfather in a story that is melodramatic, suspenseful and funny." Outstanding childrens' books of 1969, selected by Polly Goodwin, Book World "Here is a tale with flavor. Its authors tell, with rare good humor, the story of a brother and sister whose world is the river where they fish for clams, for inedible clams that their drunken stepfather sells (the story takes place in pre-plastic days) to make buttons. The sister fishes, too, for words to teach her younger brother, to redeem the pledge she had made to their mother to take care of Auston. This is going to make a dandy movie, a dramatic, lusty movie for lucky children, that is if a director like Robert Radnitz gets his honest hands on it." Publishers Weekly "The Button Boat is sort of a Bonnie and Clyde of a juvenile -- an exhuberant story set in 1934 and involving two poor, smelly kids, their drunken stepfather, bank robbers, a peace officer, a beer-swilling dog, and a clamming boat so square at both ends that only the river knows whether it's coming or going." Some Notable Children's Books, Chistopher Lehmann-Haupt, the New York Times "Melodramatic, with silent-picture type captions for chapter headings and plenty of wrong-era expressions such as 'banana oil,' 'bushwah,' and 'abadaba,' this is a very funny story in which the good guys triumph in the end. Children are said not to be interested in the Depression. They will be unable to resist the gritty Dicksie and her little brother, Auston, and unable to put the book down after the first page." Jane Clarke, Washington Post Book World

"The best humorbook ever!"

This is the most fun-filled story I have ever read! This story tells about two children that are abused and have to support themselvs and their sick drunk father . In order to do this they must go claming on their small boat. This story tells about all the troubles they go through. If you want to find out more about this book you will have to read it your-self!