PADDLE TO THE AMAZON: THE 12,000-MILE CANOE ADVENTURE Don Starkell. Edited by Charles Wilkins. Toronto, ON: McClelland and Stewart, 1987. 316pp., cloth, $24.95. ISBN 0-77108240-1. A Douglas Gibson Book. CIP. Subject Headings: Starkell, Don, 1932- Starkell, Dana. Canoes and canoeing-America. Grades 7 and up / Ages 12 and up Reviewed by Jack Brown. Volume 16 Number 3 1988 May In 1980 Don Starkell and his two teen-age sons left Winnipeg in a twenty-one-foot canoe. They paddled the Red River, Mississippi River, Intercoastal Waterway, Orinoco River, Rio Negro and the Amazon River to its mouth at Belem, Brazil. Their journey took them 19,603 km and lasted twenty-three months They were dumped fifteen times at sea and were threatened with execution by Central American bandits. They had to deal with violent storms, snakes, crocodiles, giant bees and man-eating fish. During this river and ocean odyssey, first-time author Starkell wrote a million-word journal that editors Charles Wilkins and Douglas Gibson distilled into this book. It is a look at human endurance and survival that reveals the colour of character and fortitude necessary to stay alive. One son gave up the expedition at Veracruz in Mexico, but Don and his other son continued in spite of immense challenge. In many ways this book is a study of the strengthening of the father-son relationship, in which the inevitable conflict of wills had to be overcome. The book contains many maps of their journey and twenty-seven photographs of exceptional quality. It should satisfy a wide range of interests. Jack Brown, Kingston C.V.l., Kingston, ON.