This is a great children's tale full of adventure and colorful characters. I read it when I was younger and it captured my imagination, now as a young adult, I chose to read it again just for kicks and was pleasantly surprised at how well it held up. There are bits and pieces where the writing takes some shortcuts and it feels a bit lazy, but I reckon if a young kid is reading this, his imagination would be captured and they'd be captivated just like I was all those years ago. I for one, am looking forward to having a kid or two someday just so I can read them some nice, enticing children's novels. This will be one of the books I read for sure.