A young boy becomes an accidental stowaway and must learn to start a new life on a new island while also trying to protect the old ways of his people.
A quick and sweet little read. ( )

One of six Newbery Honor Books chosen in 1932 - other titles to be so distinguished include The Fairy Circus, Calico Bush, Out Of The Flame, Jane's Island and The Truce Of the Wolf and Other Tales Of Old Italy - this brief children's novel follows the adventures of Teiki, the eponymous "boy of the south seas." When a schooner arrives at his home in the Marquesas Islands, Teiki is caught up in the general excitement, going on board to explore the strange vessel. Here, lulled by the heat of the day, he falls asleep in one of the lifeboats, waking up to discover that the ship has set sail for Tahiti, and will not be returning for some time. Although treated kindly by the sailors, Teiki is put off by what he hears of their 'crowded' destination, where money is apparently necessary to live, and jumps ship on the island of Moorea. Taking to the hills at first, and living in the wild, he is eventually adopted by a kind family, and integrated into Moorean society. But although he is generally happy, something - a sense of deeper purpose, perhaps - is still missing...

Although published in 1931, Boy of the South Seas is in some ways remarkably contemporary in its outlook, particularly in its appreciation for the importance of traditional native culture. Teiki's instinctive feeling that white ways were no improvement on his people's ancient Polynesian customs, that the loss of traditional beliefs and practices had irreparably harmed the islanders of Oceania, is depicted with sympathy in the narrative, and reinforced and affirmed through various plot developments. His meeting with the old hermit, who subsequently becomes his teacher and father figure, is particularly important in this respect, as it is he who provides Teiki with that all-important missing element in his life: meaning. On the other hand, I found that the conclusion of the story, in which Teiki finds that his path in life is to work for the museum man from Hawaii, was very much of its time. Intentional or not, Eunice Tietjens, who apparently traveled to Oceania at some point - real-life experience that comes through in her realistic and convincing narrative - leaves us with the impression that the only place in the modern world for traditional Polynesian culture is the museum.

Leaving this, and some other issues aside - was there really a theory that Polynesians were white people (albeit tanned by the sun), whose ancestors came from the Mediterranean? - Boy of the South Seas was a fairly engaging read, one I would recommend to fans of vintage children's fiction, and to Newbery completists like myself. If nothing else, it provides an interesting snapshot of western attitudes toward Oceania - the contrasting sympathy for a colonized people, and belief that they were somehow doomed - abroad in the west in the early twentieth century. ( )