The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

I'll be perfectly honest: The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen was a difficult novel to begin. The illustrations and column addendums were a pain to take breaks for because they are dense and interrupt the flow of the story. The story took a while to get going; there was a considerable amount of heming and hawing on behalf of the narrator. In Part One, I found myself thinking, 'only three hundred and fifty more pages...only three hundred more pages...' at the end of every chapter. T.S. Spivet's quirkiness and technical jargon distract from the story and add complexity that needed not be there. At least that's how it seemed in Part One.Once the action started, the endearing story of a twelve year old boy who--essentially--runs away from home to escape his brother's death is engaging, thrilling, and is the modern adventure story that we've all been waiting for. Tecumseh Spivet, a prodigy cartographer and the son of a rancher and female scientist, makes a journey from Montana to Washington, D.C., primarily by 'hobo-ing' and hitchiking. His journey to D.C. starts after he receives a call from the Smithsonian, congratulating him for winning their prestigious Baird Award and inviting him to give a speech at an elaborate banquet. Embarrassed for his parents' pride, he leaves early in the morning to begin his journey, with a handful of snacks and all of his cartography equipment. His encounters all along his adventure are unbelievable and are translated to the reader through the scope of a 12-year old boy, using science and his limited experience on a ranch in the Mid-West to explain away the workings of the world.By the end of the novel, I had become a believer in mapping and had developed a fondness for the boy wonder. Suddenly, around the middle of Part 2, I eagerly looked forward to the exquisite maps and side notes T.S. Includes for our enjoyment and clarification. As we move along with him on his journey, he becomes less and less of a prodigy and more of a scared, but incredible, boy, making his way cross country to accept a prestigious award from the Smithsonian, just because it seemed like a good idea. I heartily recommend this book to readers looking for a good adventure story.Being a pre-service English teacher, I could not help but think about whether this book would be teachable or not. While it could fall under the category of "Young Adult" for its youthful protagonist, I don't know if I would consider it a possibility, or even an enjoyment, for most students in high schools. The language is very complex at times and highly technical. While this is surely a linguistic device to illustrate the emotional barriers of the main character, I think it may turn some students off to the story. If I were to teach it, I would give it to older students in eleventh or twelfth grade and allot a great deal of time to it for classroom discussion. Many of the terminology Larsen introduces--like that of cartography, entomology, topography, and psychology--would be problematic for some average level readers, let alone for below average readers.Indeed, the first hundred pages does set up an important background and character sketch of all major players, but I feel that it would move too slowly for students to really, truly enjoy. They may end up hating the book early on and then not make it through the important and valid values and themes that the book discusses later on. At 375 pages, it is quite long, but so are many great classics. While length does induce complaining, I don't believe students would be more opposed to reading this than, say, Crime and Punishment or Gone with the Wind.Honestly, I would first put this on a summer reading list and gauge student reaction before introducing it into the classroom. Ways of reading are changing, and students of the present and future may respond better to a more technical lingo, replete with diagrams and illustrations as a supplement.Overall, after becoming more acquainted with T.S Spivet's voice, I found this to be a delightful read and I think many mature readers would enjoy it.

This is a book about journeys and moving forward with the help of the past.I'd had this book on my shelf for a while before starting it. I had come across the film (The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet) before, saw it, and really liked it. Later, I stumbled upon this book that had a suspiciously similar title. And so it sat on the shelf until recently.PlotThis is the type of book where, honestly, not a lot happens. A young boy genius of 12 years old, named T.S. Spivet, loves to map everything. He maps the way people eat, how they smile, how they walk, etc. He maps his farm, his room, his house...everything. He even maps out things for the scientific community and submits them with the help of Dr. Yorn, a colleague of his mother. Unbeknownst to T.S., Dr. Yorn submits his illustrations to the Smithsonian in D.C. as a contender for the Baird Award. One afternoon, T.S. gets a call saying that he won. After much consideration, he agrees to accept the award. However, he doesn't want to tell his family, so he decides to travel cross-country via train...from Montana to Washington D.C.That's really all there is to the plot. In short: A young boy wins a prestigious award and travels across the country to collect it.The JourneyThe real joy I had in this was following the journey of T.S. He's 12 years old and a genius to boot. He's annoying without being pretentious. He's, I think, a believable 12 year old. Like I said earlier, the book is really about the journey and self-discovery. How I interpret the physical journey might be different than how someone else would. For example, T.S. is traveling from West-East, from left-right. Imagining heading right to be a sign of progress, of moving forward (like on a number line), T.S. is moving forward in life. However, he's also traveling backwards. He's going back near to where his ancestors first landed. He's going back to a room full of people like his mother, an entomologist hellbent on discovering a possibly mythical species of beetle. Throughout his journey, T.S. learns that some things just can't be mapped. He reads the story (or true account? we don't know!) of one of his ancestors and how she met the man who began the Tecumseh naming tradition. (T.S. = Tecumseh Sparrow.) He learns that his ancestor was one of the first female geologist in the states. He learns the need for progress existed even back then and continues to exist even today. But he's always running away from the death of his brother, which continually haunts him.The book juxtaposes the past with the future in brilliant ways. Even in a world where seemingly everything can be mapped or illustrated, there still exists uncertainty. Did he just travel through a wormhole? Did his mother make up the account of his ancestor? Who is this secret gang he's found in Washington D.C.? Who knows? Some things just can't be mapped.

The copy i received was from dealstar and slightly battered(a little torn on the spine) but since its second hand, i dont really mind. The book itself is sinply fabulous, and filled with illustrations. Id love reading it(havent done so yet... just got it).the font is large and the print is really nice with awesome paper quality. DEFINITELY worth buying

The book is not as expected. I enjoyed the movie. I guess I expected great things from the book but was a bit disappointed in the format but should not have been.

un libro adorabile: qualunque genere vi appassioni, questo non vi deluderà! spero tanto che prima o poi uscirà il seguito!

Le livre est arrivé dans les temps, voir même plus rapidement que prévus. J'ai été agréablement surprise par cette édition comprenant de nombreux dessins (Gravures ?) qui en font un objet non seulement agréable a utiliser mais également agréable a regarder !

レベル：上級者向き（単語が難しい）映画を見てからなら、読みやすくなるが,EFLのような環境にいる日本人には読みにくいと思う。ところどころ、絵があるのは面白い。内容：簡単にいうと、天才少年がアメリカ横断の旅で成長する話。