 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
- By Jules Verne
- Genre: Science Fiction
Common Sense Media says
Classic requires patience and a large vocabulary.
Parents say
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that there's little of concern here, beyond a few moments of sexism, but the world of 19th-century Europe was definitely a man's world.
What's the story?
Professor Lindenbrock and his nephew Axel discover an old document that purports to show the entrance in an extinct volcano to a series of caverns leading to the Earth's center. Following the instructions, they undertake a hazardous journey deep within the Earth, where they find an underground world complete with ocean, and flora and fauna left from an earlier epoch.
Is it any good?
This classic work of imaginative fiction from one of the fathers of the science-fiction genre has lasted for nearly 150 years for a reason -- it's exciting and brilliantly inventive, even visionary. It has been made into numerous movie versions (imdb.com lists 13), including the Classic with James Mason. With each new version, viewers may be interested in reading the book it was based on. Normally you'd be glad to pass along the unabridged original (in one of its several translations from the original French) of a classic to your child, but in this case all but the most experienced readers are going to find it very heavy going. Pushing something like this on children before they are ready for it can often spoil it for them forever.
Verne was writing in an earlier era for a mostly adult audience, presumed, if they were literate enough to be reading novels for pleasure, to be very well educated. The vocabulary is advanced, the descriptions lengthy, and the scientific and literary references removed from the experience of most young readers. Experienced teens will enjoy it, and younger experienced listeners may enjoy hearing it read by an adult with the patience to stop often for explanations. Younger readers will do better to look for one of the many adaptations: illustrated, comic, and graphic novel versions (see the other choices section below for a free online version), retellings, condensed, abridged, and edited versions, and movie novelizations.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about whether or not you think this story could be possible. Could there be vast caverns under the Earth, possibly with hidden civilizations? Could there be a giant ocean? Could plants and creatures from a previous epoch have survived down there? What does modern science know for sure about the interior of the planet?
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AGE
An old classic will torture you with unknown words!
Okay, first of all this book makes no sense. Since it was made in the 1800s it has a lot of confusing words that are mostly unknown to people in our time. The storyline is really boring. A large chunk of the book is about trying to figure out what a cryptic code means, which is just a message saying to go to the center of the Earth. Again it is a really confusing book so it might not be good for kids under 12. 12 year olds have a little more patience.
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AGE
its good
it is a great adventure it loks interesting for the yougsters
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AGE
A good Classic
A solid read, but may be a bit slow for younger readers.
Sex: None (no issue)
Violence: Dinosaurs fight in distance of the threesome. A hurricane is tense. The characters almost die of thirst (no issue).
Social Behavior: Professor Lidenbrock seems to have no regard for his safety or for that of his companions (safety as in not turning back when they ran out of water) and is portrayed as a little insane(not issue)
Alcohol/Drugs: The adventurers take gin with them as their only liquid, expecting to find an underwater stream, Professor Lidenbrock smokes a pipe. (pause)
Educational Value: They travel to a place that does not exist, and the book was written with scientific self-assuredly. No-one can survive being inside an active volcano. Also, Verne made many mistakes geographically and geologically when pointing out facts, for example, he mistook the island farthest to the West from Iceland as the one farthest to the East (these are pointed out in the version I got, but maybe not in yours) (PAUSE)
Overall: Mature 11-12+ normal 13+ immature or impatient 14-15+. However these ages are just because younger readers would get bored, or not understand it.
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AGE
annoying book
This is horrable the main charecter is a whining jerk who we don't even know his NAME it keeps swicing from Harry to Henry and back again don't bother
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| Author: | Jules Verne |
| Book type: | Fiction |
| Genre: | Science Fiction |
| Publisher: | Puffin |
| Publication date: | December 31, 1969 |
| Number of pages: | 337 |
| Paperback price: | $4.99 |
| Publisher's recommended age(s): | 12 - 12 |
| Read aloud: | 10 |
| Read alone: | 13 |
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