20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

The following is a guest review from my eleven year old grandson, Kai O:

 

What happens when an expedition to kill a giant narwhal is shipwrecked and then saved by the same narwhal? But what if the sea monster is actually a giant submarine? This is what happens to Professor Pierre Aronnax in Jules Verne’s amazing book, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I've never read anything like this great book. But an early warning...don’t read the summary on the back of the book. It gives away too much of the story and nearly ruined it for me.

When Professor Pierre Aronnax is thrown overboard on the Abraham Lincoln, he is thrown into a undersea adventure with mystery and amazement.  The adventure starts when the professor, a whaler named Ned Land, and the professor’s assistant, Conseil, are saved by the submarine named The Nautilus commanded by the mysterious Captain Nemo.  Soon after they climb inside, they find themselves in a dark room. Later, Captain Nemo comes into the room with his lieutenant and attempts to communicate unsuccessfully due to Captain Nemo speaking a wholly unknown language. After being served a meal and now sleeping in a lit room, Captain Nemo comes back now speaking the professor’s language. Captain Nemo explains that the world can not know of his existence; therefore, he can’t let them go. On the flipside, Professor Aronnax and his friends are hurled into awe inspiring adventure, including undersea forests and sea monsters.

I really liked this book...it was like nothing that I ever read before. Conversely, this book does have various chapters centered around boring topics, such as the descriptions of the fish surrounding the Nautilus and their classification. For this reason, I would only recommend this book to the most dedicated readers, but it is still a great book to read.  Finally, I would give the book four stars because of its various boring chapters.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Poster from the movie (1954), starring Kirk Douglas and James Mason: