How to Build a Tin Canoe.

HOW TO BUILD A TIN CANOE. Robb White. 2003/2005. Read by the author. 5 cds. 6 hrs. Blackstone Audiobooks. 0-7861-8182-6. $45.00. Vinyl; content notes. JS

This Robb White is the son of the man of the same name who wrote popular YA adventure stories, e.g., Deathwatch, Up Periscope, and Survivor, as well as scripts for Perry Mason; he is also the brother of National Public Radio personality and author Bailey White. He seems to have inherited his father's way with words as in his mostly folksy but literate way he tells the tale of his youth and how he came to be a boat builder. He and his siblings and assorted little cousins were pretty much left on their own off the Georgia and Florida coasts and wetlands post-WW II, eating from their mom's kitchen and off the land and sea while they sought adventures and learned the wild ways of the outdoors. When White was eight, he built his first boat out of galvanized tin and he has been building boats ever since, even when he was in the Navy. He is a self-made man; he skipped a grade in school by simply not going until the following year. He has a degree in oceanography and taught school for ten years. But it is his exuberance and joy in scouring the wildernesses in between boat building and earning a living that gives this so much zest.

White does his own narrating and he is superb with his mellow voice, Southern-flavored speech, timing, storytelling way, and good humor. For anyone who loves the outdoors, making wooden (or tin or aluminum!) boats, cooking in the wild, or just listening to an inimitable raconteur roam his way over the waters and the woods. Absolutely delightful. (Check out his refreshing website too at: http://www.robbwhite.com/ index.html.) Mary Purucker, Beverly Hills PL, Beverly Hills, CA

J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers.

S--Recommended for senior high school students.