Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry (1990)

Editorial Reviews

 

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful: Call it Quality Reading, August 23, 2000 By  George R Dekle "Bob Dekle" (Lake City, FL United States) - This review is from: Call It Courage (Mass Market Paperback) Robert Heinlein once wrote that "Courage is not the absence of fear--it is the conquest of fear. The man who is truly fearless is not courageous. He is also a fool." Young Mafatu, a Polynesian islander, fears the ocean. This is something akin to a cowboy fearing cattle. His fear causes him a great deal of discomfiture and makes him an object of scorn and ridicule. Sperry tells the story of how Mafatu (which means "Stout Heart") faced and conquered his fear. I read the story some 40 years ago as a young child. Although I wasn't really searching for anything other than the subject matter for a book report, I came away from "Call it Courage" with something far more important than a long-forgotten grade. Simply, elegantly, Sperry explores the nature of courage and helps the young reader to come to a better understanding of that most misunderstood quality.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful: Fight your fears, November 20, 2002 By  microjoe -     A great adventure book, of a young man who suffers a tragedy and then conquers his worst fears. He is an islander living a simple exhistance, when his fishermanfather is killed by a shark. After that he is afraid of the sea and deemed useless by the villagers that live off the sea. He gets lost on a deserted island and must learn to fend for himself. The villagers all assume that this clumsy boy could not make it one day on his own, but he does very well indeed. His Robinson Crusoe-like adventure is one that folks like us could not survive, since he was more prepared than we could ever hope to be since his people lived off the land and sea already. By the way, in 1972 the Walt Disney studio made a very very nice live action version of this for their weekly tv show and you can do a search for the vhs version and get a used copy here at Amazon.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful: Adventure!, November 11, 2004 By  J. Brian Watkins (San Dimas, CA United States) The story of Mafatu's adventure on the isle of the eaters of men is unforgettable. Some 30 years ago I first encountered this book in my elementary school library and it remains vivid in my memory. It is the story of a young boy, Mafatu, who lives on an island yet fears the sea that killed his mother years ago. Mafatu decides to face his greatest and deepest fear--the sea--and sets off on an adventure, ending up not only conquering his fear of the sea but successfully confronting such life-threatening challenges as a hammerhead shark, a sharp-tusked wild boar and, finally, angry man-eating islanders. It is the kind of story where just when you think things can't get worse, they do. But Mafatu finds out that he is able to overcome every challenge and returns to his home island in triumph. Mafatu's story should be required reading for children preparing to face a world every bit as dangerous as the open ocean and filled with hazards no less serious than sharks and cannibals.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: An Important Lesson in Conquering Fears, February 25, 2003 By  S. K. Simmons (Fernley, NV United States) This review is from: Call It Courage (Mass Market Paperback) Mafatu is afraid of the sea, as it took his mother's life when he was a baby, and his fear has made him an outcast amoung his people, even if his father is cheif. By the age of ten Mafatu has decided he needs to face his fears, and thus begins his adventure. This is a marvelously enjoyable book, and has been awarded the Newbery Medal for its contribution to childrens literature. Even as an adult I enjoyed this novel, and can't wait until my son is old enough for me to share this wonderful novel with him.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful: Three Amigos: a boy, his dog, and his albatross, April 14, 2006 By  Robert A. Williams "libertarian" (Oberlin, OH United States) - This review is from: Call It Courage (Hardcover) A South Pacific hurricane nearly killed Mafatu, a Polynesian Island boy, when he was three. Currents from the impending storm had carried the canoe that his mother navigated out to sea, where the hurricane-sized waves capsized it. Clinging to the outrigger pole, Mafatu's mother managed to fight off sharks and dehydration long enough to reach a coral reef after several days adrift: "At hand lay a cracked coconut; the woman managed to press the cool, sustaining meat to her child's lips before she died" [p10]. Ever since, Mafatu was afraid of the sea. This book was originally written in 1940 and is illustrated by the author. It's five chapters are subtitled "Flight", "The Sea", "The Island", "Drums", and "Homeward". It is a Rite of Passage story where Mafatu is teased and taunted by his mates because of his fear of the sea. Eventually Mafatu can no longer tolerate the jeers nor the silent contempt that his dad holds for him, and he sets off in a canoe with his two pals - a dog and albatross, to run away from the island of taunts. Out in the Pacific Ocean, a storm and its currents grab the boy's craft taking it on an unknown course while its waves rob the craft of its stores and supplies. Mafatu and his dog, Uri, are battered at storm's end and the albratross, Kivi, must step up and guide the gang to land - The Island. Exploring the island, he discovers it is used by the "eaters-of-men" to make sacrifices to a statue - he had landed on Forbidden Island! The remainder of the book is about how Mafatu comes of age while learning to survive and be resourceful. When he and his dog eventually return to their home island with the eaters-of-men in hot pursuit most of the way, they return (thanks to Kivi's navigational assistance) to a see a cold father no longer cold and jeering villagers no longer jeering. Mafatu, the Stout Heart, has proved he has earned his name.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: Action packed small book, April 19, 2002 By  Pat Lowe "patquilts" (Stockbridge, GA USA) This book starts out a little slow. The action picks up in the second chapter when Mafatu goes out into the sea he has feared for so long. He is determined to show he does have the courage to be a strong man. This is a wonderful book for people of all ages.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful: Finding courage within oneself., June 2, 1999 By  R. D. Allison (dallison@biochem.med.ufl.edu) (Gainesville, Florida, USA) This short book by Sperry (1897-1976) won the 1941 Newbery Medal for best contribution to American children's literature. Mafatu, a Polynesian boy of 15 years old, has an intense fear of the ocean. At the age of three he was nearly killed when his mother drowned. Now he must conquer his fears. He goes off on his own and finds the courage within him. The story (probably for ages 9 to 13) starts off on the island of Hikueru in the Tuamotu Archipelago east of Tahiti at a time before European ships and missionaries had arrived. Apparently, Sperry, who had traveled throughout the South Pacific, based his story on an old and true Polynesian tale.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful: One grownup who liked it..., November 9, 2003 By  Brian Connors (Cape Cod, MA) I read this one when I was a kid, probably around fourth or fifth grade, and I loved it. This is really an incredible story, predating Castaway and Life of Pi by sixty-some years, and still remaining a solid story for today's readers. Mafatu is a boy of about twelve living on the Polynesian island of Hikueru, who has lost his mother to the sea and is deathly afraid of it. One day, to conquer his fear, he sets out himself and winds up a castaway on a volcanic island. The thing that fascinated me as a child reading this was Mafatu's ingenuity -- the construction of the outrigger canoe, the making of his clothing and food, teaching himself to hunt and build and survive. While I wouldn't have wanted to be so far from home, in some ways I wanted to be him, experiencing that world half a planet away. TV shows like Survivor have nothing on this. The ambiguous ending (I prefer to think it's a happy one, but that is by no means clear) is a satisfying, if bittersweet, wrapup to one of the greatest, most intense, most incredible adventure stories that any child could ever enjoy. This is highly recommended, both to children who want something a little different to read and to adults who want to remember what it was like when that treefort in the backyard was a gateway to an entirely different world.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: A classic!, October 3, 2006 By  Zoe Paris (Beverly Hills, CA USA) I read this book in sixth grade. It was a wonderful adventure type story about a boy who is afraid of the ocean and decides to run away and face his fears. It has all the elements of a great story, action, struggle, loss, happiness and triumph. It's beautifully written and has a awesome ending.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful: SURVIVAL IN THE ANCIENT WORLD, April 12, 1998 By  Plume45 "kitka12345" (Westchester, NY) Mafatu, whose name means Stout Heart, is a 12- year-old Polynesian boy living on the rocky atoll of Hikueru. As a child he watched his mother drown; ever since he has been a prisoner of the understandable terrors of his maritime environment. Worse still, his fear of fishing has embarrassed his father, the chief, for all the village knows that his son is a cowawrd. Desptie his nimble fingers and quick mind, he seems fit only for woman's work, yet his heart burns with shame at the vicious taunting of the other boys and his father's humiliation. He longs to redeem himself in the eyes of his people and earn the his father's pride. This book has been a classic tale of survival for over 50 years, yet I had not heard of it until I found a Pb version. It read swiftly, albeit with little dialgoue. I wish the author had gone into more depth about how Mafatu fashioned the tools he neded to survive on the small island. It was interesting to learn about the man-eaters and their most sacred taboo: scacrifices to a monstrous stone idol on the Forbidden Island. The island that saved his life after a gruelling ocean voyage could prove his deathtrap. This slim volunme is appealing because it presents a young boy with a clearly-defined dream: to return in triumph as a brave warrior to his people. He has to clarify his goal and work out the details of each step in the process, but the arrival of the cannibals is ill-timed. He must face and conquer his fears of the ocean; he reveals the spirituality of this Pre-Columbian people by praying often to Maui. When threatened by elements of the sea, he hurls challenges to Moana, whom he feel has been stalking him since he almost drowned at the age of three. I admrie his courage to defend his faithful canine companion and the many times he must overcome real terror at his own physical peril, to achieve a greater goal. His will to live and ingenuity are a great inspiration; this story shows that even pre teens are capable of great achievement.