River Boy: Adventure on the Amazon

When eleven-year-old Manuel, an Indian boy living deep in the Peruvian jungle, learned from his grandmother that he had an older brother Reycito, who had been driven from their tribe many years before by a jealous headman, he determined to find him. His brother had fled to "the place where the river ends," at the sea, more than three thousand miles away. Manuel made his slow way downriver, going by dugout canoe and sailboat, on foot and even, briefly, by plane as a stowaway. Along the river he met other Indians, who were always friendly but who spoke strange languages and taught him new ways to hunt. He also saw cities of unimagined size and grandeur.

Manuel's journey, over three months long, is illustrated with stunning color photographs taken by the author, who made the same trip from a village near the headwaters of the Amazon down Belem on the Atlantic Ocean. Young readers will be absorbed by the unfamiliar dangers and exotic beauties encountered here in text and pictures by Ralph Hermanns.