Hunniwell Boys #5 Longest Flight and #6 Gobi Desert

In the Hunniwell Boys #5, The Hunniwell Boys' Longest Flight, Mrs. Green's son, Fred, left a year ago for Australia in hope of mining for gold.  Mrs. Green is heartbroken.  Bill and Gordon decide to fly to Australia to find Fred.  Along the way, the boys rescue a few people and encounter various adventures.

The aviation feats of the Hunniwell Boys are quite improbable, but for the most part, I simply ignore it.  I had to stop and think about it when the boys' plane climbs to 14,000 feet on page 17.  The oxygen level is thin at that altitude; additionally, the temperature is only 9.1 degrees Fahrenheit.  Nothing is mentioned about lack of oxygen or the cold.

This book contains many highly judgmental statements about the Aboriginal people of Australia.  I find these kinds of judgmental statements to be very offensive.  On page 169, Fred tells the Hunniwells that the natives are "hardly human they're so feeble-minded."

Indigenous peoples who live off the land in various parts of the world, even though they may not be in contact with the modern world, are intelligent and capable people.  They just have a different lifestyle, and there is nothing wrong with that.  In fact, they are much more intelligent about living off the land than modern-minded people are.  I hate reading judgmental comments about people who are different.  Just because someone is different doesn't make them stupid.

On page 194, Gordon observes, "These fellows may be lazy and all that but, take it from me, they know their stuff when it comes to springing a surprise."  Right, which means that they are not stupid.  They are knowledgeable about what is important to their way of life, which is simply different from ours.

This is a very good story.

In the Hunniwell Boys #6, The Hunniwell Boys in the Gobi Desert, Jim and Gordon Hunniwell fly to the Gobi Desert in their plane, the Falcon, to find a missing professor.

Did you catch that?  Inexplicably, the two brothers are now named Jim and Gordon instead of Bill and Gordon.  Not only that, but the Hunniwells' plane is now the Falcon instead of the Albatross.  Needless to say, the series pretty much lost me at this point.  I am not at all forgiving of sudden illogical name changes, especially when the series was supposedly all written by the same person with none of the books ghostwritten.  This makes no sense!

The book appears to have been written by Wyman as far as I can tell.  Certain phrases and colloquialisms are present, just like in his other books, but why did he change Bill to Jim?  UGH!!!

I had trouble enjoying the book.  In fact, I really didn't like it at all.  It partially bored me, and I skimmed towards the end.