“The Woodsman’s Son” by April Blanchard

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My friend Mary recommended I consider ‘The Woodsman’s Son” by April Blanchard for a review. I don’t read a lot of young readers’ fiction, but she suggested it as a heartwarming book to feature during the holiday season. Mary has never steered me wrong, so I took her advice.

“The Woodsman’s Son” turns out to be a gentle story of one boy’s assimilation into the Adirondacks as his new home. Will Chadwick was being raised in London, England, by his grandparents, for reasons that at first aren’t fully clear. Granted, his mother had died shortly after giving birth to him. The maternal grandparents — especially the boy’s grandmother — aren’t about to say anything positive about the father, who remained on the other side of the Atlantic after his wife’s death.

But a sudden accident upends Will’s world, and an uncle arrives to bring him back across to North America. Not surprisingly, his father turns out to be anything but wicked. Instead he’s an Adirondack guide whose way of life contrasts too much with the existence his grandparents had envisioned for their daughter (Will’s mother). It’s a touching and humorous scene when Will turns out to be surprised even to learn his father can read!

The growth in respect for his father parallels his own development of skills needed for the remote life that his father has chosen to live. But Will spent the prior part of his life in luxury. He finds himself missing school, enough so that he strategizes ways to catch up on formal education later in life. Meanwhile, there’s still plenty of other types of learning available.

Sometimes Will seems a bit too precocious for a 9-year-old, even one raised in one of the world’s most cultural cities during the latter nineteenth century. He’s initially bewildered by life in the wilderness, but he’s not cowed. Appropriate to a more self-sufficient lifestyle in the Adirondacks, he gains stamina for hiking, learns to swim, gets taught to row a guideboat, is mentored in running trap lines, and receives lessons in using the gun he’s given as a present for his tenth birthday.

Over time Will also gains understanding that money and prestige are not everything in life. He shows an ability to learn from his mistakes. In addition, he deals with coming-of-age issues- “I was too old to do the same old things I’d been doing and too young to have any real work.”

Along with his father, there are other interesting people out there in the remote regions of northern New York. Will crosses paths with the likes of Great Camps builder William West Durant and neurosurgeon Arpad Gerster, both of whom made notable contributions to Adirondack history. His most beneficial meeting, though, comes from his father’s decision to have him spend a significant amount of time apprenticing with famed guide (and guide boat maker) Mitchell Sabattis.

Occasionally the prose becomes a little cumbersome. In addition, the book could have used a final overall editing. Spelling, punctuation, syntax, and even formatting errors can sometimes prove distracting.

However, the author has given us a pleasant novel with a healthy dose of history and forest lore painlessly mixed in. There are a few useful life lessons spelled out, plus some lessons in empathy. At the very end there’s a headlong rush to tie up loose ends; the author might have spaced these out better.

Perhaps best geared to readers about Will’s age through the story, from nine to about thirteen, this might also serve as a good book to read along with a younger child as well. Maybe consider this for a seasonal gift, with a handmade certificate for a guided hike with one’s parents, or add the promise of a trip to the Adirondack Museum. You’ll stimulate reading and at the same time begin to solidify a new generation’s relationship with the Great North Woods.