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Desert Ordeal Volume 3 of Barclay Family Adventure Series by Ed Hanson 2003 PDF {SPirate}
When their plane is hit by lightning and they are forced to crash land in the desert, Paul Barclay, the Barclay children, and their Navajo pilot use all their skills to try and survive in the desert and return to civilization.
Ed Hanson and Saddleback Educational Publishing have come up with a brilliant concept for solving a very serious problem: the great decline in reading among today's students. Their solution? Put out readers that are essentially suspense-filled or mystery-filled juvenile series books like the famous Tom Swift, Nancy Drew, and Hardy Boys series of old.
This confronts both of the major problems with more traditional readers: if they are not mind-numbingly dull, they are excruciatingly didactic, cramming some important "teachings" whether moral, religious, or (these days) politically correct down the throats of children so hard as to turn them off of reading for good. The most offensively PC "lesson" of the series so far, the "are you prejudiced against Native Americans" question, was again quickly and mercifully dropped after Paul passed the test with flying colors. (One of the reasons I found it so offensive is that the Native American in question's description, the one Paul was advised not to be "surprised at", was simply that of an outdoorsman; nobody would ever know from his appearance that he was a Native American unless they were told!)
With this volume Ed Hanson seems to have hit his stride, or in Stratemeyer Syndicate tradition perhaps they have found themselves a new and improved "Ed Hanson". This was a taut little adventure about surviving a crash landing in the desert with no mistakes that I was able to catch.
Defects? One is simply length. 64 pages just doesn't allow for much if any character development or anything much beyond cardboard cutouts: brave father, devoted mother, the athlete, the science wizard, and the baby of the family.
However, the "cascading disbelief" problem I raised a warning flag about in my review of the previous volume was dealt with here simply by avoidance, by not even mentioning the Barclay family's previous travel disasters and leaving Paul's ex-wife out of the book entirely! (Justifiably ex- one might argue if as is hinted at in the previous volume, Paul's penchant for travel disasters long preceded the first book in the series!) More to the point, never mind about what Paul's ex-wife thinks, at what point will other people start refusing to travel with or to provide travel transportation or accommodation for this family of modern Jonahs?
Still, for what they are intended to be, reading textbooks, they are wonderful. The fact that children who learn to read better and to love reading from these books will quickly find them skimpy fare for pleasure reading is not entirely bad, assuming their teachers quickly move them on to bigger and better things in the school library or the bookstore if necessary.
The previous book in the series is Danger at 20 Fathoms (Barclay Family Adventure Ser., Bk. 2), and the next book in the series is Forest Fire (Barclay Family Adventure Ser., Bk. 4).
Title Desert Ordeal
Volume 3 of Barclay Family Adventure Series
Author Ed Hanson
Edition illustrated
Publisher Saddleback Educational Publ, 2003
ISBN 1562545523, 9781562545529
Length 64 pages
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