We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,736,774.51 | Books Available: 736,298 | Members Online: 254

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - My Ishmael

My Ishmael
Author: Daniel Quinn

Daniel Quinn's Ishmael was the winner of the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship, a prize honoring fiction that offers creative and positive solutions to global problems.  This extraordinary novel has become an underground bestseller and a testament for a burgeoning spiritual movement.  Mr. Quinn's new novel is a companion piec...  more »e--not a story that follows the first but rather a story contemporaneous with the first.  In it, the Ishmael saga takes a startling direction that is in no way prefigured in the original.

The gorilla licked his lips--nervously, it seemed to me.  "I think we can safely say that I'm not prepared to deal with the needs of a person your age.  I think that can be safely said.  Yes."

"You mean you give up.  Is that what you're telling me? You want me to go away because you give up.  Don't you think a twelve-year-old girl can have an earnest desire to save the world?"

"I don't doubt it," he said, though the words sounded like they were pretty hard to get out.

"Then why won't you talk to me? Your ad in the paper said you need a pupil.  Isn't that what it said?"

"That's what it said."

"Well, you've got one.  Here I am."

With these words we meet Julie Gerchak, one of the most engaging young heroes since Huckleberry Finn--and one of Ishmael's most challenging and rewarding disciples.  Unable to justify turning her away, Ishmael accepts the daunting task of juggling two pupils of widely differing characters--one of whom (Julie) insists on remaining unknown to the other (Alan Lomax, known to the readers of Ishmael as the narrator of that book).  Julie is unquestionably bright (quite possibly brighter than Alan), but she's also shy of his educational background by ten years!  This means Ishmael can by no means follow the same strategy with each--or expect the same outcome from each.  Alan and Julie don't just take different routes with their simian mentor, they end up in very different places.

But something else distinguishes Ishmael's relationship with Julie.  When the infrastructure of his life begins to crumble, Ishmael must choose one of his students to entrust with a great secret and a great mission.  And, surprisingly, his choice falls not on the older, more experienced student but on the younger one.  In revealing the mission and the secret entrusted to her, Julie pens a conclusion to the Ishmael saga that will raise cheers from his fans all around the world.

ISBN-13: 9780613173919
ISBN-10: 0613173910
Publication Date: 10/1999
Reading Level: Young Adult
Rating:

Currently 4.8/5 Stars.

4.8 stars, based on 4 ratings

Publisher: Bt Bound
Book Type: Library Binding
Other Versions: Paperback, Hardcover
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

Daniel F. reviewed My Ishmael on 10/29/2006 + 2 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

I didn't care for this nearly as much as the initial "Ishmael."

Share/Like this Review?

Read All 6 Book Reviews of "My Ishmael"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

Paula H. (littlestar) reviewed My Ishmael on 5/17/2012 + 15 more book reviews

The original Ishmael is much much better than My Ishmael. The character "Julie" is very unlikeable and makes a ridiculously unrealistic trip. Not a great book.

Share/Like this Review?

Katherine M. (kbm) reviewed My Ishmael on 1/25/2010 + 18 more book reviews

very insightful

Share/Like this Review?