“The Adventures of Charlie Pierce: The Last Egret,” Book #2

HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW

Book: The Adventures of Charlie Pierce: The Last Egret, Book #2

Author: Harvey E. Oyer III

Illustrator: James Balkovek

Publisher: Middle River Press, 2010

ISBN-13: 978-0-9817036-8-8

ISBN-10: 0-9817036-8-2

Related websites: www.TheAdventuresofCharliePierce.com (series), www.middleriverpress.com (publisher)

Language level: 1 (nothing objectionable)

Reading level: Ages 9-12

Rating: 5 stars (EXCELLENT)

Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker

For more information e-mail homeschoolbookreview@gmail.com

Oyer, Harvey E., III. The Adventures of Charlie Pierce: The Last Egret, Book #2 (published in 2010 by Middle River Press, 1498 NE 30^th Ct., Oakland Park, FL 33334). If you had lived in south Florida during the late 1800s when exotic bird feathers on women’s hats were all the rage and you were in danger of losing your home, would you try to kill a bunch of birds so that you could sell their feathers and save your home? That’s what Charlie Pierce set out to do. Charlie was an actual person, born in 1864 at Waukegan, IL, who moved with his parents, Captain Hannibal Dillingham Pierce and Margretta Moore Pierce, to Jupiter, FL, in 1872 at the age of eight when his father obtained a job as assistant keeper of the Jupiter Lighthouse. The Pierces then homesteaded Hypoluxo Island near Lake Worth in 1873 and became one of the first non-Native American families to settle in southeast Florida. Charlie’s little sister Lillie was born in 1876, the first white child born between Jupiter and Miami. Author Harvey E. Oyer III, who is an attorney, archaeologist, and historian, as well as a great-grandnephew of Charlie, introduced readers to Charlie in the first “Adventures of Charlie Pierce” book entitled The American Jungle (2008).

In The Last Egret, Charlie learns that because of taxes and paying tuition for Lillie’s school, from which she runs away and travels 250 miles of Florida wilderness to return home, his family may have to sell their island. He also learns from John Samuelson, a traveling trader, that snowy egret plumes have become fashionable for women’s hats in New York and are selling for $40 an ounce. So, without his parents’ knowledge and against their wishes, Charlie, his reluctant Seminole friend Tiger, and two neighbor boys named Guy and Louis Bradley, borrow the boat of Charlie’s Uncle Will and make what turns out to be a five week hunting trip, along with Lillie who stows away, to Pa-Hay-Okee or the Everglades to kill as many snowy egrets as they can and make enough money to save the island. What important lessons will they learn? Will they ever make it back home? And will the island be saved?

In the late nineteenth century, hunters killed millions of birds in the Florida Everglades to supply a booming trade in bird feathers for ladies’ fashions. Several species even became extinct as a result. Based upon daily journal entries kept by Charlie Pierce and told in the first person as if Charlie himself were narrating the story, this book is an exciting account of pioneer life in the south Florida frontier around the turn of the last century. I especially like how the author points out that when in an ancient cypress forest the children were “awed by this example of God’s creation” and says that the Seminoles “respected nature and all of God’s creatures.” It teaches a great lesson on the importance of conservation in a way that kids can understand. Also, it demonstrates the fact that people must be held responsible for their actions, reminding us to make choices that are in the best interest of everyone and not just according to our own selfish desires. This is a wonderful read for all ages.