Neither of these books are Science Fiction, fantasy or Horror per se, but their adventurousness made them welcome to a boy who loved Edgar Rice Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard. There is something about facing a sabertooth tiger or a giant octopus that makes it more than a mere historical novel.
Call It Courage (1941) by Armstong Sperry follows Mafatu, a cowardly boy forced to make weapons and tools instead of facing the challenges of the sea. His only friend are Uri, a little yellow dog and Kivi, an albatross. Mafatu and Uri leave his island to face life on their own, taking on sharks, octopi, cannibals and his arch-enemy, the ocean itself. This is personified as Moana, the sea god. Disney would borrow that name for its heroine in 2016.
Sperry did the original illustrations for his book as well. It won the Newberry Medal for 1941. Disney filmed the story for The Wonderful World of Disney (April 1, 1973). I haven’t seen it since I was kid…
Fire Hunter (1951) by Jim Kjelgaard follows Hawk, chief weapon-maker for his tribe, as he makes innovation after innovation and leads his tribe to survive sabertooth tigers, rival tribesmen and grass fires. It was illustrated by Ralph Ray.
Kjelgaard, who is best known for his Big Red dog books, serves up a fascinating tale of cavemen and invention that is plausible for the time but filled with action and adventure too. He attempts Burroughsian fantasy but strives for plausibility in a way that Jean Auel will make best-sellers of in thirty years. The film 10,000 BC should have used this story.
It would be easy to add to this list books like Treasure Island, King Solomon’s Mines, The Three Musketeers and a host of others but the truth is I read most of them after forty. I went from these books to Burroughs, Howard, then Heinlein, Silverberg, etc., skipping more mundane fare. I don’t regret it. But reading classics of this short give you a much wider perspective on SF books. take for instance Dumas. Read The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, then Alfred Bester’s The Stars, My Destination and Jack Williamson’s The Legion of Space. Any H. R. Haggard will change how you see Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard. (Those ape monsters had to come from somewhere.)