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    The Green Book
    The Green Book
    The Green Book
    Ebook62 pages59 minutes

    The Green Book

    By Jill Paton Walsh and Lloyd Bloom

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Jill Paton Walsh's classic science fiction novel The Green Book is now available from Square Fish with a brand–new cover!

    Pattie and her family are among the last refugees to flee a dying Earth in an old spaceship. And when the group finally lands on the distant planet which is to be their new home, it seems that the four-year journey has been a success. But as they begin to settle this shiny new world, they discover that the colony is in serious jeopardy. Nothing on this planet is edible, and they may not be able to grow food. With supplies dwindling, Pattie and her sister decide to take the one chance that might make life possible on Shine.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMar 13, 2012
    ISBN9781466801578
    The Green Book
    Author

    Jill Paton Walsh

    Jill Paton Walsh (1937-2020) was an award-winning author of many books for children, young adults, and adults including The Green Book, A Parcel of Patterns, the Booker Prize shortlisted Knowledge of Angels, and the Whitbread Prize winner The Emperor’s Winding Sheet. She completed Dorothy L. Sayers’ unfinished Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane mystery manuscript, the international bestseller Thrones, Dominations, and continued Sayers’ series with A Presumption of Death, The Attenbury Emeralds, and The Late Scholar. In 1996, Walsh was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for services to literature.

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    Reviews for The Green Book

    3.5/5

    15 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      It's a children's book that would be just about perfect for 3 or 4th grade. It was also a book that allowed me to fill in a category for a challenge...so it served a duel purpose. It's an interesting story about modern pioneering with some really cool illustrations. To an adult reader it's a reminder that children can and do make some of the biggest contributions to family and society.
    • 4/5
      I first read this in grade school when I was first getting into fantasy/sci-fi and the story always stuck with me though I could not remember the title. I somehow tracked it down and was quite glad I did. The story follows a family who travels to a distant planet fleeing a dying Earth. This particular family and their compatriots were not well off so they are sent with limited resources on a ship not designed for colonization. The planet is one of crystalline structure - rocks, trees, plants all appear glass-like. It was this aspect of the world building that so caught my imagination as a child. Overall not a groundbreaking or amazing book, but it was nice to revisit it.
    • 4/5
      Earth is dying, and a spaceship full of people is sent to a distant planet that may be able to support life. They are sent with seeds, some equipment, and the smallest assortment of personal belongings. But when the ship lands on the new planet, their only hope is that it can sustain life - because there is no fuel for the spaceship to take off again and go elsewhere. For a book that is clearly science fiction, this oddly never really felt like it belonged in that genre. As the people struggle to try to grow food on the new planet, it felt more like reading about the various disasters that Larua Ingalls Wilder's family dealt with in the Little House series. A very short book, and a good read; though the supposed surprise of the last page is a bit predictable.
    • 3/5
      Also read Jill Paton Walsh’s The Green Book which is really short. It’s children’s fiction, so I’m trying to go easy on it, but I had a ton of questions and problems with the background and the world. I think that’s not meant to be the focus here, but the story itself is so slight that I couldn’t help but notice.
    • 5/5
      The Green Book was the perfect story at the perfect time for our family. Our daughter was a very early reader, and good chapter books that she could read that don't get into overly adult material - yet did not insult her intelligence - were hard to find. (if your impulse is to start listing them - we are avid readers, have no fear - we never ran out)

      The child protagonists of this book were a great entry point for her - their intelligence was also something she appreciated. The Green Book was her gateway into reading longer form science fiction, of which she's become a fan.

      Some reviews point out the fact that there are scientific inconsistencies... well, yeah - comics can be a good read, too, and getting hung up over where Spider-man's web is connecting and why Batman travels by rooftop doesn't seem to give anyone pause. Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, anyone? As for boring? Never. Sadly - this is likely the effect of assigned reading in school, which does kill many a good book for many a reluctant student. Ironically - the fact that it is assigned at times, speaks well for it's quality.

      Another aspect that we liked was the fact that the society facing peril were not reaching for supernatural reassurances as they coped with their problems. The secular nature of their worldview was one we appreciate, and made the story feel like it was grounded.
    • 1/5
      Perhaps if I'd read this when I was 8. Before I'd ever read any other science fiction. But I would still have been bugged by the internal inconsistencies of the story, not to mention the huge gaping holes in it. So all they are going to eat is wheat flour and moth wing soup? ForEVER? And how could they not know how long the day was on a planet they had approached for months? And who was the mysterious Guide? And why didn't they talk among themselves about who was bringing which book before boarding the ship? Why did Pattie continue to misuse the word 'choose' after 4 years had passed? So much improbability, it's a wonder Arthur Dent didn't come through looking for a spot of tea.

      And it really bugged me that the illustrator hadn't read carefully. All the roof shingles in his illustrations were SQUARE. And the moths were entirely fairy-like, as opposed to the descriptions in the text.

      I say it's spinach.


    • 4/5
      The story takes place in a future when the inhabitants of Earth have to leave it to escape its impending destruction (the cause of which is not explained in the book, but some allusions to the light getting bluer and the planet colder might mean the Sun is dying). Young Pattie, her father, older brother and sister are part of one of the last groups to leave. Their spaceship is quite old, and they are headed towards a planet where life might be possible. After four years of traveling, they finally arrive on the planet, which turns out to be quite hospitable at first with breathable air, drinkable water, and no dangerous animals or other beings. However, the group soon discovers that they cannot grow Earth vegetables in its crystalline-like soil, and the wheat they sowed looks more like glass than wheat. Will they be able to survive on Shine?I am not a reader of science fiction, and apprehended reading this book, but I actually got into the story which is still very much “human” because it portrays a future that humanity might be confronted with one day, and I was actually disappointed at the end that the story was not longer. I wanted to know more about the life of the people on the new planet even though to stop the story where it does makes sense. The narration of the book is interesting because the narrator is omniscient, but includes himself/herself in the story by using the pronoun “we”. Since all the main characters are mentioned in the third-person, I spent the whole book wondering about that narrator. In an interesting mise en abyme, it turns out that the book we are reading was actually written by Pattie in a green cover notebook she had brought from Earth, hence the title. It usually takes a particular kind of child to enjoy science fiction stories, but I believe this book could appeal to other readers as well because of the more universal story. Ages 8 and up.
    • 5/5
      Very thought and discussion provoking story. Not scary or freaky, just matter of fact. A futuristic, sci fi for young children.
    • 4/5
      A quick read detailing a family's four year journey to a new planet. Though they have little resources, they, along with others, must seek out a new planet because the earth is no longer-- or soon to be no longer. It lends itself well to a lot of discussion questions in a classroom, such as needs and wants, what are your most important/valued possessions, how a journal can outline a story etc. It does spur a child's imagination.. What would it be like if all our plants were made of crystals and grass cut your feet? How would you survive? Oh, and if you could only have one book, which book would you take? Some of the characters chose very poorly.. Have fun reading this older short novel.
    • 3/5
      a mom came into the library looking to find a copy of this book for her daughter, who had already read it and presented it for a school assignment but hadn't, "clearly", said the mom, really understood what the book was about. i love post-apocalyptic books, especially ones meant for kids or teens, and this one had little shadows of it all over the place. took it home and now i understand why that girl had trouble understanding. it was an ok book, full of interesting ideas and scenarios but one, it seemed too rushed, as many a kid's book does unfortunately, and two, trying to figure out who exactly the narrator was proved distracting, and lastly, three, i wanted much more detail then the book went into. still, glad i found it, glad i read it.
    • 5/5
      This is a lovely story of people being forced to leave a dying earth and coping with various problems on their new world. The Green Book saves the day.

    Book preview

    The Green Book - Jill Paton Walsh

    Chapter 1

    Father said, We can take very little with us. The list was in his hand. "Spade, saw, file, ax, for each family. Seeds, etc., will be provided. Iron rations will be provided. For each voyager a change of clothing, a pair of boots, one or two personal items only; e.g., a favorite cooking pan, a musical instrument (small and light), a picture (unframed). Nothing under this heading will be taken if it is bulky or heavy, fragile or perishable. One book per voyager."

    It was easy to pack. We were allowed so little, and we didn’t have to bother about leaving anything tidy behind us. Only the books caused a little delay. Father said, I must take this. He showed us an ugly big volume called A Dictionary of Intermediate Technology. But you must choose for yourselves, he said. It wouldn’t be fair of me to choose for you. Think carefully.

    We didn’t think. We were excited, disturbed, and we hadn’t really understood that everything else would be left behind. Father looked wistfully at the shelves. He picked up The Oxford Complete Shakespeare. Have you all chosen your books? he asked. Yes, we told him. He put the Shakespeare back.

    We had time to waste at the end. We ate everything we could find.

    I don’t want to eat iron, Pattie said, but nobody knew what she meant.

    Then Father got out the slide projector, and showed us pictures of holidays we had once had. We didn’t think much of them.

    Have they all gone brownish with age, Dad? said Joe, our brother, the eldest of us.

    No, said Father. The pictures are all right. It’s the light that has changed. It’s been getting colder and bluer now for years…but when I was young it was this lovely golden color, just like this—look.

    But what he showed us—a beach, with a blue sea, and the mother we couldn’t remember lying on a towel, reading a book—looked a funny hue, as though someone had brushed it over with a layer of treacle.

    Pattie was glad that Father wasn’t going to be able to take the slide projector. It made him sad.

    And the next day we all went away, Father and Joe, and Sarah, and Pattie, and lots of other families, and left the Earth far behind.

    When this happened, we were all quite young, and Pattie was so young that later she couldn’t remember being on the Earth at all, except those few last hours, and even the journey was mostly forgotten. She could remember the beginning of the journey, because it was so exciting. When we could undo our seat belts, and look out of the windows, the world looked like a Chinese paper lantern, with painted lands upon it, and all the people on the ship looked at it, and some of the grownups cried. Father didn’t cry; he didn’t look, either.

    Joe went and talked to Father by and by, but Sarah and Pattie stood at a porthole all day long, and saw the world shrink and shrink and diminish down till it looked like a round cloudy glass marble that you could have rolled on the palm of your hand. Pattie was looking forward to going past the moon, but that was no fun at all, for the ship passed by the dark side, and we saw nothing of it. And then we were flying in a wide black starry sky, where none of the stars had names.

    At first there were voices from the world below, but not for long. The Disaster from which we were escaping happened much sooner than they had thought it would, and after two days the ship was flying in radio silence, alone, and navigating with a calculator program on the computer, and a map of magnetic fields.

    The journey was very boring. It was so long. The spaceship was big enough to frighten us when we thought of it flying through the void. Joe kept telling Pattie not to worry. "Heavy things don’t fall down in space, he told her. There’s nowhere for them to fall; no gravity."

    When I knock things over, they fall down, just like at home, Pattie said, doubtfully.

    That’s just the ship’s gravity machine, making it happen inside the ship, said Joe. "To make us feel

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