by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 25, 2010

Edward Ardizzone was 68 years old when he wrote "Tim to the Lighthouse." (He dedicates the book to "my tenth grandchild, Jessica.") It had been shortly before World War II that Ardizzone began writing stories about the adventures of a little boy named Tim, who lived near the ocean with his friends Charlotte and Ginger. Now, 30 years later, Ardizzone was writing that often the children "would talk to the old boatman who was always kind to them."

"Sometimes, when the day was fine and the sea calm, he would take them out to the lighthouse..."

Tim is also friends with the lighthouse keeper, who meets them at the stone jetty below his lighthouse every time they arrive. There's a neat illustration diagramming the rooms of the lighthouse - with the light room on top, above a kitchen room, and then a bedroom, on down to a bottom room that's filled with hens. ("The keeper liked an egg for his breakfast.") And of course, all of his rooms were round...

It's the kind of children's picture book that you don't see much any more - the "boy's adventure" genre. Ardizzone served as a war artist, and it's nice that his attention to detail found a second use - entertaining children. Ardizzone drew a few color illustrations for the book, but most of them are in a rich black and white. (They remind me a little of the sketches in the "Hardy Boys" books.) All the details make the story seem realistic and believable, and it rambles slowly for many pages before it suddenly drops into a very tense situation.

One night Tim realizes that the light in the lighthouse wasn't sweeping the ocean for ships. "He waited and waited but still no light. So he realized that something terrible had happened..." Wait, it gets worse. The lighthouse has been attacked by "wreckers" who hope to force a transport ship to run aground, so they can pillage its cargo.

Tim isn't able to wake his father, so he pulls on his raincoat and wakes up a neighbor named Captain McFee. The captain warns him that "it may be a dangerous voyage," and they steer through the gale. And when they arrive at the lighthouse, they find the lighthouse keeper has been knocked unconscious and tied up - along with his assistant.

They revive him long enough to whisper instructions to Tim about how to reactivate the lighthouse's search beam. Tim is left alone at the top of the tower, but within a few hours two "rough men" burst in to try to shut off the light. One even lifts Tim off the ground, shakes him, and says "Tell me what to do, you little wretch, or I will make mincemeat of you."

It's something you'll only see in a "boy's adventure" story - a grown-up bad guy who physically threatens a child. But soon the Coast Guard arrives to save the day, and there's a terrible fist fight with the wreckers. Everything ends happily, and the children are returned to their home ashore.

And then Tim and his friends are hailed as heroes for enduring their lighthouse adventure...

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.