Paddle-to-the-Sea

[Charles Green]

First off, it's an illustrated children's story-book published in 1941, authored by Holling C. Holling.  It's still in print.  I came across the book in the '60's while I was in high school.  By then, in a strict sense, I was out-of-age for the book but it struck me because, by then, I was also a modeler and the book is about a model. 

 

As modelers, at some point, at some time, we have put ourselves in the place of the pilot, the captain or the driver of the airplane, vessel or car we had modelled.  It's OK, admit it!  Imagination is what drives our hobby. 

 

In the case of this book the modeler is a North American native child of the 1940's; unidentified, but probably Ojibwa, living in the Nipigon country along the north shore of Lake Superior.  Over one winter, the boy carves a model canoe.  At this point comes the book's appeal to me, as I hope it would to any modeler: the boy imbues the model with his sprit - sets the model on a snowy slope and leaves it for the thaw to take it away.  The model then becomes the main character.  The story is a spiritual yet literal ride as the model enters rivulets, streams, the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence and ultimately makes it to Europe.  All along the way, the model is at the mercy of the elements and the few people who find it along its journey.

 

It is a book written for a child's sensibility but coming from the '40's, it carries occasional reference to that time's attitude towards Natives.  Rather than discounting the book for that reason, these few references should be used as examples of ignorance that demean the speaker rather than their subject. 

 

By the end of the story, the Native boy has become a young man working on a wharf not far from where the story began.  French-Canadian lumberjacks are nearby, talking.  One has a newspaper sent from France by his cousin.  The paper contains a story about a model canoe that made it all the way to France from North America.  One lumberjack exclaims that years ago, that's the model he put back in the water after saving it from the mill-saws!  He put it back in because the Native boy had placed an inscription on the bottom of the model - Please put me back in the water.  I am paddle to the sea. 

 

The young Native approaches the lumberjack, inquires, then softly says..."Good.  I made that one."  Boarding his own canoe, the young man takes a few strokes and pauses, becoming his Paddle to the Sea, freeing his imagination and spirit to his model's untold adventures.   

 

Show this book to a kid.  It will make a modeler out of anyone who reads it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

[ccoyle]

Loved this book and its film adaptation when I was a kid.

[grimey]

Paddle-To-The Sea! I remember it, (both the book and the film, from my Grade 4 class back in 1964, but this is the first time I've seen it mentioned since then. (I grew up in Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay), about 100 miles from the Lake Nipigon area.)

 

Thanks for bringing to our our attention.

 

Grimey

[Sailor1234567890]

We had that book at home growing up. I remember not really appreciating it. Glad it's appreciated.