Henry Lee Mitchell Pike

'Not only a canal but a nation is being built', March 10, 2015

This review is from: Vasco, Our Little Panama Cousin (Paperback)
An attempt to give a geography lesson to the young reader by means of following a fictitious local lad. With his new friend, the son of an American engineer, working on the Panama Canal, young Vasco gets to observe the construction work going on, as well as visiting rural cousins at their sugar mill , going to see the ruins of old Panama, and hearing of the buccaneers.
I laughed at Mr Pike's lack of political correctness, in talking of Vasco's ethnic background; 'perhaps this accounted for Vasco's aversion to hard labour'; and jingoism: 'the example of industry and persistent perseverance set by Americans...ought to be a source of inspiration to the leisure-loving native.'
Fair enough little story, and I learnt a few things, but pretty forgettable… (altro)