(We actually didn't like Coot Club much and decided to skip it for now after a few chapters, but that was because it was mainly about Dick and Dorothea, and we wanted to read about the Swallows and the Amazons, not the Ds.)
We adored Pigeon Post. First of all, it was a jolly good adventure. One part toward the very end made us all laugh so much that I had to stop reading, wipe my eyes, and blow my nose because I was crying from laughing so hard. And it took several starts before I could really move on, because the laughter didn't want to stop. Man, what good stuff. And the final quarter or so of the book was absolutely thrilling -- I read until I was hoarse and we still didn't want to stop.
Pigeon Post is all about the Swallows (John, Susan, Titty, and Roger) and Amazons (Nancy and Peggy) and Ds (Dick and Dorothea) deciding to go prospecting and find gold so that Nancy and Peggy's Uncle Jim (aka Captain Flint) would settle down near home and stop wandering all over the world having adventures. They figure if they find gold, he will be too busy gold-mining to go galivanting.
Being their typical resourceful selves, they figure out a way to convince their parents to let them go camp far away from the lake to do their prospecting, using carrier pigeons to relay messages every day assuring the Natives that they are well, safe, and happy. And, in the end, one of those carrier pigeon messages ends up saving the day for more people than just the prospectors.
I'm not sure kids ever have been this awesome and jolly and free to roam around doing cool things. But I like to believe there was a time and place when it was possible.
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some perilous and intense things happening at the end.
This is my 5th book read and reviewed for my fifth Classics Club list.
