My 5 year old loves it and he is learning so much!

This much-loved Children's Classic, written in an era where the phrase "politically correct" was unheard of, tells the simple, exquisite story of a tree, a boy, a special place & the coming of the seasons & centuries.

In the beginning of the cottonwood's life, a Kansas Indian boy builds a barricade to protect it from the thirsty herds of buffalo seeking relief in the nearby pond at the edges of the American Great Plains. Generations of tribes of the First People gather at this high place & revere this lonesome tree.

Then explorers from across the world pass by with anger in their hearts & the pathway they find becomes the Sante Fe Trail. In time trappers & settlers pass on by leaving their marks, telling their stories.

This is the way I love to learn history: the ebb & flow of rich memories, evocative paintings & curious sketches depicting the passage of time & the tools of people on the move. Do check out my full review & other reviews of a host of children's books.

This is a little different review. Fifty-seven years ago at the request of his mother I visited Holling C. Holling at his California ranch. I was eight years old. He asked me to pose for a few sketches he wanted to do. Later that year he sent me the book "Tree in the Trail." Inside the front cover he had written "For Nedd Mockler, who posed for the Indian boy in this book. With best wishes, Holling C. Holling." The inscription is dated "Dec. 1942." I have all of his books and enjoy looking at them still. Lucille Holling, his wife, was a water color artist and helped with many of his projects. (I would like to correspond with the gentleman who wrote the first review. Would you give him my name, phone and email address. Thanks)

I first read this book about thirty years ago, and would regularly re-visit it and other titles by this author, until I grew out of so called picture books. That I can still recall the pictures from Seabird, and the images that the cast in my mind testify to the quality of the writing. The journey from coastal whaling off Nantucket, to Greenland, the Pacific and the Yankee clippers that have forged their way into Legend, ending with one of the protaganists and his grandchild on a steamship in the 1920s will never leave me. Books like this should never die or be forgotten. You owe it to your children to make sure they read it.

I haven't forgotten it in the 20 years since I last read it. I'm ordering it right now to read it with my sons. This is a lyrical book that can survive a post-politically-correct viewing without losing any of its character.

From its inception in the 1940's, Seabird has offered children of all ages a rich blend of New World nautical history, from tall-masted ships to steamships, all woven into an adventure of global exploration by sea. Highly recommended.

To this day Seabird evokes sights and sounds of whaling days and early coal-powered ships. I smell the greased hemp lines and the rendered blubber, the sulphurous fumes of steamers, kelp, and the sea itself.

The early youth, perhaps reading alone or read to, becomes a lean young sailor, develops character, and passes into old age through four generations -- a most remarkable transition when one knows so little of aging or history. Holling was a master author, first of Paddle to the Sea, later of more land-based novels, each rich in full-page color images.

Paddle-To-The-Sea was one of the first long books my mother read to me [early 60's] and one of the first long books I read on my own. Many elements make this a fantastic book for elementary school-age children: it is an excellent geography lesson, teaching the reader about the Great Lakes region; it shows a character being creative and sending his creation out into the world without knowing if there will be a return for his actions; the payoff for the carver of Paddle-To-The-Sea comes only after a long period of time. When I spent the summer of 1966 in Minnesota with my family, we visited many of the places in the book including Lake Superior. I remember how much the book informed that summer. Several years ago I revisited Lake Superior for the first time since '66 and the images of a small carved Native American in a canoe were still on my mind. Give this book to a young person so they can take its literary journey and have it leave them with a lasting impression.

This book brings back fond memories of a wonderful childhood growing up in rural Michigan. It was a permanent fixture on the bookshelf in the old Berville school house when I was just a boy in the 60's. There was even a slide show version shown occasionally when the weather was too nasty to play outside.

The adventure so inspired my brother and me that we fashioned our own "Paddles" out of our lunch-time milk cartons. We launched them in the late spring snow drifts that filled a drainage ditch. Our imaginations took those little waxed paper cartons to the ends of the earth.

Mr. Holling's images invite the young reader to enter this world of the Great Lakes and envelopes like a favorite blanket. I remember gazing at each scene for long periods of time searching for Paddle, who sometimes appears as just a tiny bit of red lost in a world of moving water.

Children find this book as riveting today as I did in my youth. I gave a copy to my friend's son a few years ago and he loves it. The way of life on the Great Lakes may have changed significantly since the book was written in 1941, but children's imaginations and sense of adventure have not. This book should be on every school and home bookshelf.

I grew up in Oregon. My grandmother, who lived in Alaska and Oregon, gave me a copy of this book when I was about 8, many decades ago. I have never forgotten it and have been delighted to find another copy of late.

An Indian boy, landlocked in central Canada, carves of wood a small Indian man in a canoe, and places him on a snowy hillside, with a message on the bottom of his canoe identifying him as "Paddle-To-The-Sea" and pleading with anyone who finds him to put him back in the water so he can complete his long journey -- a journey the boy cannot make himself.

At the spring thaw, the wooden canoe slides down the mountain and into streams, ponds, and eventually the Great Lakes and the St Lawrence River. Paddle encounters boats, animals, ships' locks, a forest fire, a sawmill, and many other threats and adventures. Many pairs of hands discover and help him along his mighty journey. One even repaints him after a year or more of bad weathering.

Each chapter-page of the book has a facing full-page painting in rich colors, as well as small marginal illustrations. The book is a great adventure story, but it's also an effective geography lesson for folks who don't live in or know that part of the country. Like someone else wrote, I will never forget that Lake Superior is shaped like a wolf's head and Lake Huron like a fur trapper with a pack on his back. (Can't remember which lake is the carrot and which the piece of coal, though!)

This is a beautiful, classic book for older children, which should remain in print for generations to come. I can't wait until my niece is old enough to be ready for a copy.

I read this book in elementary school and went looking for it again last year as a gift for a niece. Be warned that there's a scene that she found really sad (Minn gets hurt) -- and it made her cry. So maybe it's not for sensitive first-graders. Still, the story is wonderful and little Minn is a great character. There's also a lot of fascinating natural detail. And stunning illustrations. It's a children's book version of a top-notch Nature documentary. "Nova" in print, if you will. Also check out Holling Clancy Holling's other books. They're all great, even looking back at them after three decades.

At age 52, I can vividly remember discovering this book in my local library as a boy in 4th grade, especially the luminous color illustrations and drawings Hollings used to tell the story of the journey of a snapping turtle from the Mississippi's trickling source in Minnesota, to its fullness in the Gulf of Mexico. In following the life of "Minn," from hatchling to a veteran survivor of many predators and adventures, I learned the history and lore of the river and the animals and people who live in it and along its banks. This is a book that does not talk down to its young readers. I am buying one now to read again, and to share with any grandchildren who may come along in our family.

I discovered this book when I was in fourth grade. I thought it was the best book ever written. I especially enjoyed the juxaposition of the biology of the snapping turtle with the history and geography of the Mississippi River

When I was a young child I enjoyed this book immensely. I read and re-read this book, and then re-read it again. I recently found my dog-eared, falling apart copy of this book. It brought up a lot of nostalgia, and just for grins I read it again. It is still just as good as when I first read it. I was given a small collection of Holling books as a child, but Pagoo was my favorite. It instilled in me a love for sea life, which I followed through exploring the beaches of the Pacific NW, my practically life-long home. This book is wonderful, and I am buying several new copies to pass on to all of my young friends.

Pagoo is one of my favorite children/science books. Holling Clancy Holling is a wonderful author and created a series of great books for children, as well as adults, you will both learn so much! All of his books take you on a journey or life story of the main character, in this case Pagoo(abbreviated from the correct biological name) is the life story of a hermit crab. I used to read one page a night to my boys, and one page alone is filled with so much information and illustrations you'll see why. I swear both my boys, now young men, have a tremendous sensitivity to the earth and all its creatures and I believe some of this was because of the wonderful perspective Holling Clancy Holling gave them. We read all of his books, but Pagoo, Minn of the Mississippi(a female snapping turtle's tale) and the most famous Paddle to the Sea(the journey of a small wooden Indian in a canoe) were our favorites!

It has been too long since I first read Pagoo, but when I found it again I felt the same wonder, and eagerness to know more of Pagoo, and his life. I have read Pagoo to each of my children, and own a small hermit crab because of it. It is a wonderful book, full of detail, and excitement that makes you want to read on.