The Radio Boys at Mountain Pass; or, The Midnight Call for Assistance

Chapman, AllenProject Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

Rating 2.3
Word count
247K words
Chapters
25

Tags

Motivation and Growth Science EnlightenmentInspirationGrowing UpPopular NarrativeYouth Reading

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. The Radio Boys at Mountain Pass; Or, The Midnight Call for Assistance by Chapman Author: Chapman, Allen, Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jan 1, 2012

Editor's review

This is one volume in the "Radio Boys" series, a set of early twentieth-century adventure novels for young readers: a group of boys use their radio equipment to send a midnight call for help when they run into danger in the mountains, setting off a tense and wholesome rescue story. The book's value lies in two things: first, it brings the then-new technology of radio into a boys' adventure narrative, letting readers see how technology was imagined as a tool of courage and cooperation; second, it portrays a group of boys who value responsibility, mutual aid and calm judgment, with the distinct flavor of period juvenile fiction. The language is English, and the length and difficulty suit it as extensive reading material for young English learners. Today it can be read as a period sample: enjoy the tight plotting, but also notice how the book frames technology, gender roles and the "heroic boy", and compare it with contemporary young adult fiction to discuss which ideas have changed and which adventure tropes persist.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read one or two chapters a day, and after each chapter jot down on a sticky note the distress clues and solutions in that chapter.
  2. Compare the radio operations in the book with today's communication methods and make a simple table of technological change.
  3. When using it as extensive reading material, do not look up every new word; read through for plot first, then go back and organize high-frequency words.
  4. Organize small-group discussions: which of the boys' judgments are reasonable and which are risky, to train critical reading.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25

FAQ

Can I read this one directly without having read the other books in the series? You can try. Boys' adventure series books usually center each volume on a standalone incident, and this book's core is the mountain distress and the midnight call for help, so the main line is relatively complete. But the characters' relationships and personalities were established in earlier books, so knowing the series background will make for smoother reading.
What English level is this book suited to? The materials classify it as juvenile literature; the narrative is plot-driven and the sentences are not complex, so it suits middle school students or learners at an equivalent level with basic English reading ability for extensive reading. The radio and outdoor vocabulary can be previewed in advance and does not affect overall comprehension.
What should I keep in mind when reading this as a public-domain e-book? This book comes from Project Gutenberg and is a public-domain electronic text, usually without a modern introduction or notes. Readers need to judge the early twentieth-century attitudes in the book for themselves, and can turn to outside sources for technical terms rather than treating the book as an authoritative technical account.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Chapman, Allen Author

Allen Chapman is an author of English-language juvenile fiction about whom little is publicly documented; his nationality, dates of birth and death, and true identity remain unclear. Judging from the twenty-five works held in the collection, he wrote mainly adventure and coming-of-age stories for young readers, often set against railroads, school life and winter camps. Representative works include the "Ralph" series, such as Ralph, the Train Dispatcher and Ralph of the Roundhouse, which follow a railway boy's work and adventures, and the "Tom Fairfield" books, such as Tom Fairfield's Pluck and Luck and Tom Fairfield's Schooldays, which explore school friendship and tests of courage and reputation. The narratives are brisk, suspenseful and uplifting, portraying diligent, upright and responsible boys and lending themselves to themes of duty and friendship.