“Paddle to the Sea” by Holling Clancy Holling
Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1941, 64 pages, Grades 4-5.
Five great bodies of water comprise the Great Lakes. Bordering both the United States and Canada, the Great Lakes are both aesthetically beautiful and commercially valuable. From lumbering to shipping, to vacationing and fishing, these marvelous lakes have long held people’s fascination.
While Lake Superior, with its wolf head shape is the largest lake and carrot shaped Lake Ontario is the smallest, all of the Great Lakes have their special attraction. Holling Clancy Holling has written a classic in children’s literature about the Great Lakes. In this beautifully written and illustrated story, a Native Canadian child carves a canoe with a tribal voyageur. He takes the foot-long canoe with its fearless paddler and places them on a snowy hill above a frozen river. On the bottom of the craft he writes: “I Am Paddle to the Sea, Please Put Me Back in Water.” He tells them to go through the five Great Lakes to the sea. The spring melt soon happens and the pair are launched on their adventure.
Crashing down into the river the little canoe bobs along as it is swept downstream. Hundreds of logs are floating nearby and they all come to a massive log jam. The tiny boat is wedged in a log that is lifted onto a belt at a lumber mill. The log is guided to a massive saw which almost cuts the canoe in half. At the last moment, a sawmill worker sees the canoe and rescues it from the saw. Looking on the bottom, he sees the writing and puts the boat back into the stream.
Paddle to the Sea floats down the river and is soon riding the massive, foamy waves of Lake Superior. Birds and fish wonder if they should eat the canoe and paddler but quickly realize they are made of wood. Saved from bird and fish attacks, the boat is carried by the currents around the hundreds of miles of Lake Superior’s shores. Paddle to the Sea is picked up by a sailor at the giant water locks at Sault Ste. Marie and placed on a freighter heading down Lake Michigan to the steel mills in Gary, Indiana. The canoe is accidentally dropped overboard and must slowly drift up the western coast of Michigan. Over and over again, people pick-up the tiny canoe and marvel at its beauty and the character of the paddler. Each time they return the boat to the water. There are three more Great Lakes and then the immense St. Lawrence River. The years begin to pass and many dangers continue to rise. What happens on the rest of this arduous journey?
Does Paddle to the Sea ever arrive at the Atlantic Ocean? Is it possible to survive the huge distance and massive waves of the Great Lakes? How does the little canoe withstand the ice and snow of the winter? Have you ever done something difficult? What gave you the strength to finish the task? What do we learn about the canoe and its fearless paddler? To find out the answers to these questions, go to the library and check out this fascinating story, “Paddle to the Sea” by Holling Clancy Holling.
Classic books have compelling storylines. To continue to be admired generation after generation, these books have to grip readers and speak to important values in their lives. This is such a book. Besides just being a very interesting read, “Paddle to the Sea” is an outstanding book for the classroom. Only a rare book such as this title can beautifully combine the instruction in geography with the excitement of a novel. You simply can’t miss with this title. I hope you encourage the younger members of your family to savor this book and that you take the time to read it as well. Enjoy!
