Seekers of Fortune: Six Outstanding Boy Protagonists

Quick Book Notes #6

Dear Friends,

By the great horn spoon (as the 49’ers would say), there is nothing I enjoy more than packing a bag of snacks, laying a blanket out under a tree, and reading aloud to a passel of kids from a book about a capable, deep-thinking, adventurous twelve-ish-year-old boy. Tom Sawyer! Henry Alden! Brian Robeson! Reynie Muldoon! There’s nothing better than an afternoon spent in the company of such adventurers. Fortune-seekers one and all, such young protagonists commonly set out on some sort of quest, but it is not always a physical one and the fortune sought is not always money. But the story along the way is almost always one that will be full of both wisdom and surprises.

In this month’s Quick Book Notes, it is my pleasure to (re)introduce you to six of the very best boy protagonists in relatively American children’s fiction.¹ I can’t be comprehensive here, so I’m choosing to focus in on protagonists of books that have stayed with me since my own first reading and which also resonate with my own children. Since I have always had a historical bent, these all take place in historical periods, as well.

As you may well note, I am not, nor have I ever been, a boy myself. It doesn’t matter. These stories of these boys will draw in children of both sexes; and why not? Cannot a girl as well imagine herself in medieval England with Elizabeth Janet Gray’s wonderful boy minstrel, Adam? Aren’t human stories of interest to us all? (But don’t worry — a post on girl protagonists is in the works, too!)

Above all, these adventurous boy characters show us how life experience and a willingness to meet moral challenges lead almost inevitably to growth in maturity, to the very first tastes of an adult kind of wisdom.

Now, I bet you think you know which book I’ll be starting with, due to my exclamation above…

But no! We’ll get to that one later. Why not start at the beginning, instead, with something a little bit more…ancient?

Please allow me to introduce Ranofer of Thebes.

Ranofer

In The Golden Goblet, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw.

Ranofer is a young, mistreated Ancient Egyptian apprentice who discovers a finely-worked golden goblet among his half-brother’s things and must then decide what to do. Themes of moral courage, righteousness, human dignity, and adventure all develop within superbly-described settings of Egyptian life in and around the city of Thebes. Ranofer’s story opens young minds to the possibilities of how an ordinary kid thousands of years ago might both both different from kids today and strikingly similar. It’s a wonderful possibility for a kid to think through.

And did I mention that there are grave-robbers, too?

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Adam

In Adam of the Road, by Elizabeth Janet Gray.

Jumping forward a few centuries, I’d now like to introduce you to Adam, a minstrel’s son who begins the book studying at a monastery where his father has temporarily left him. Soon after Adam rejoins his father on the road in Medieval England, a series of events separates the boy from his father and he finds himself traveling alone, trying his best to follow the clues to catch up with the lord whom he and his father serve. Along the way, there are ballads and bandits, knaves and knights, and a moral journey of courage and self-reliance that takes Adam a remarkably long way.

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Nat

In Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham.

Nathaniel Bowditch is growing up in the port town of Salem, Massachusetts in the late 18th-century when, not to put too fine a point on it, everybody he loves starts kicking the bucket. Nat is determined, however, to make something of himself and care for his remaining family, and so he makes up his mind to “sail by ash breeze:” to learn by experience and through his own hard work and self-teaching. This fictionalized biography of a real and extremely important American navigator is both entertaining and inspiring; and unlike the other protagonists mentioned here, Nat grows fully into adulthood during the story.

Maybe your kids, like mine, will grow in conviction that they, too, can sail by ash breeze when needed.

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Matt

In The Sign of the Beaver, by Elizabeth George Speare.

Twelve-year-old Matt has just travelled with his father deep into the woods of 18th-century Maine, where the two of them have built a rough log cabin. Matt’s father must now leave him alone to guard (and finish) the homestead while he fetches Matt’s mother, sister, and newborn baby sibling from the former home in (I think?) Massachusetts. Left by his lonesome in his cabin in the woods, Matt soon discovers that he is not actually alone, forming a friendship with Attean, a young Native American whose hunter-gatherer tribe is summering in the same woods. (Attean is not the protagonist, but is a wonderful character worth exploring in and of himself.) Over time, each boy grows in trust of the other, and each learns something of the other, and then…well, you should read it!

I’m aware that this book has fallen out of favor, but I find its complex treatment of an instance of contact between cultures honorable and nuanced. It will start very good conversations with kids about different perspectives on the same historical events — in this case, Matt’s and Attean’s.

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Jack

In By the Great Horn Spoon, by Sid Fleischman.

Nothing says adventure like the California gold rush, and Jack, a proper young Easterner whose guardian aunt has fallen on hard times, is a true adventurer. Along with his bemused and clever butler, Praiseworthy, Jack stows away on a ship bound for California, and many are the adventures that ensue thereafter.

Jack is self-motivated and strong-willed, but everything he does is out of a desire to make something of himself and save his family financially. The relationship between Jack and Praiseworthy as they move from triumph to mishap and back again is fascinating, as Praiseworthy has the same goals as Jack, but Jack intends to lead (and yet Praiseworthy has intentions, too).

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Sam

In My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George.

Who among us did not long at times, as a child, to strike out on our own and build our own little home? Sam does just that, with the permission of his parents (who thought he’d come right back), making a home for himself in the burned-out trunk of an old tree in the Catskills. His adventures and misadventures, his companionship with a passing hiker who becomes his friend, and his devotion to his beloved pet falcon all direct him through this transitional winter in his young life, in which Sam learns a thing or two about dreams, realities, and the maturity that awaits him.

How I longed sometimes to be Sam when I was a kid! And how much I learned from the beginning, middle, and ending of this book.

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There are, of course, a great many more boy protagonists and excellent books that could be added to this list, including from more recent books (the brothers in the Wingfeather Saga come to mind! ) as well as much older ones. It has pains me not to even mention Huck Finn! And my daughter is much distressed that I had to cut my seventh pick—Simon in The Great Turkey Walk—so maybe I’ll have to do another post on him sometime.

But these are supposed to be Quick Book Notes, not Comprehensive Book Essays. (Sigh—they’re really not short posts though, are they? Hence having to cut Simon due to post length.)

Have you read any of the books listed here?

What boy protagonists and books would you add?

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Finally, a little bit of housekeeping:

Going forward, you should expect two paid-only posts per month most months: one Quick Book Notes post in the first half of the month, and one essay on another topic of interest to our readers in the second half of the month.

And of course, our regular free posts will continue, as well.

I look forward to reading and discussing with you!

Have a wonderful week!

-Dixie

1. The book links in this post go to my affiliate shop at Bookshop.org. When you purchase from my shop, you help support my work. Thank you!