| The Adventure Books by Willard Price | | | | Perhaps because of the need to get the boys out |
| The Adventure books were written by Willard | | | | on their own to drawn in the books audience their |
| Price, a journalist and naturalist who travelled the | | | | father, John Hunt, rarely appears. When he does |
| world working for National Geographic, among | | | | is is usually called away or injured, leaving the |
| other publications. The series tells the Adventures | | | | boys to fend for themselves. Father figures, such |
| of Hal and Roger Hunt, two young naturalists and | | | | as Captain Ike or Captain Ted are around to act |
| "Take'em alive" men who capture animals for | | | | as mentors on those areas Hal is not aware of. |
| conservation and wildlife parks. | | | | About the series |
| The BackgroundJohn Hunt owns a wildlife park in | | | | There are fourteen books in the series written |
| America; a wildlife specialist who specialises in | | | | between 1948 and 1980. This time span means |
| taking animals alive. His two sons, Hal and Roger, | | | | that there are occassionally continuity issues. The |
| are both years ahead of their classes, so he | | | | safari team's dog changes gender between |
| makes them an offer: stay in school, or take a | | | | books, and the brothers occassionally appear to |
| year out to travel the world and learn the family | | | | forget that they have already encountered some |
| business. Not surprisingly both choose the second. | | | | of the creatures they run into in later books. Also |
| In the late forties and a culture of big game | | | | some of the knowledge and thinking about animals |
| hunters, taking animals alive was a rarity, and the | | | | is outdated, particularly in the earlier books where |
| boys often had to explain what they were doing | | | | one notable plot device has since been disproved. |
| and why they did not want to kill the animals. In | | | | There are some debates about order. Although in |
| their long year out, the boys travel to Africa with | | | | general the books are written in chronological |
| their Safari team, the America and the South | | | | order the ending of the thirteenth book, Tiger |
| Seas with Captain Ike and the Lively Lady and | | | | Adventure, is the end of the boy's year out. |
| the waters of Australasia with Captain Ted and | | | | Arctic Adventure, which comes after it feels like |
| the Flying Cloud, as well as India, the arctic and | | | | an afterthought, although readers can easily |
| other exotic locales. | | | | imagine that it is where the boys were sent for |
| Hampered by individual opponents ranging from | | | | their summer holiday. |
| the comically inept to the psychopathically | | | | About Willard PriceWillard Price was a journalist |
| dangerous, dealing with rare and dangerous | | | | who traveled the world reporting for organisations |
| animals and learning from the locals, the boys | | | | such as National Geographic. His job took him to |
| take younger readers on a thrilling ride across the | | | | rare and exotic locations, including six years in |
| world. Hal and Roger are at the same time | | | | Japan at a time when it was virtually closed to |
| characters and literary devices. Hal, the older is | | | | the Western world. He decided to write a series |
| nineteen, described as tall and broad, and | | | | of books to share his adventures with children, |
| possesses vast knowledge of the natural world. | | | | hoping to inspire in them a love of the natural |
| His brother Roger is fourteen, smaller and has a | | | | world. Despite his series of travel articles and an |
| natural way with animals - which does not always | | | | extensive range of non-fiction books, he is best |
| work to his benefit. While Hal teaches his brother | | | | remembered for his Adventure Books. |
| about animals and their trade, he is also teaching | | | | Further Reading A site with full pages about each |
| the reader. | | | | book and their areas. |