BANANAS FOR BOOKS

Characters:

Chris is someone who won't stop until the job is done. He'll work very hard for what he wants and will deny any help for his own jobs. Stuart is a smart and young man. He learned from school and knows a lot about medical treatment. Also, he has a quick mind and can make decisions without second thought.

Setting:

The story begins in Minnesota around 1829. They live on a farm in Goose Wing Valley and their community overlooks Goose Wing River. As he traveled down the Mississippi River, they saw many types of landforms that were unfamiliar to them.

Plot: 

In 1829, in the area that is now Minnesota, there lived a young man named Chris Dahlberg. He lived with his rude uncle on a farm after his parents died of a disease. Chris decided to visit his old and weak grandfather for three days, but when he came back his uncle had forbidden him from staying. Since Chris had no other options, he went back to stay with his grandfather. As winter ended Chris and his grandfather came up with an idea to go logging down Goose Wing River to trade logs for money. On Chris's journey down the river he ran into an old friend, Stuart, who joined him on his expedition. Further down the river, they stopped to get help from professional loggers. With the help of Pierre Dumenille and Joe Langford, they set sail down the Mississippi River. Even with their help, they crashed into a tree in the most dangerous part of the river. Sadly, they lost the majority of their logs. Pierre Dumenille sent Stuart and Chris to fetch the logs. Their fellow loggers almost gave up searching for the logs, so Stuart and Chris went out on their own. With Stuart's quick mind, he predicted that the logs were at a nearby Indian village. As they went to see if his prediction was true, they found all the logs resting in a pond owned by the Indians. The only problem was that there was two Indians guarding them. Chris quietly tried to push the logs down the river, but an Indian started attacking him. With the help of Stuart they defeated the enemy and floated the logs down the river. Their team was waiting down the river to pick up the logs. Finally, after months of hard work they reached St. Louis. Once Chris traded the logs, he had enough money to pay his workers and had money left over. With this money, Stuart improved his education and Chris returned to support his grandfather. Chris ended up logging for another season and finished his education in St. Louis.

Point of View:

In this book the author used third-person limited as the point of view. Third person limited is when the narrator tells you about one characters feelings. The narrator only knows Chris's thoughts and feelings. For example, in the book it says "Chris had no idea whither he was going as he trudged blindly away from the house where he had lived so long and where the door was now closed against him."

Theme:

The theme of Swift Rivers is to persevere through any challenge that comes your way. In the beginning of the book, Chris's logs kept getting caught on the rocks in Goose Wing River, but he never gave up. With his hard work, he reached Pierre and he helped him journey down the rest of the river. However, another professional logger named Ned Kelly crashed the raft into a tree and lost all the logs. Chris decided to find the logs with his best friend, Stuart. After many days of hard work, they almost gave up but they persevered through it. Stuart and Chris finally found the logs in a pond in a nearby Indian village.