I rarely give 5 star reviews but this 200 year old book deserves it. It is well-written, well-paced, full of adventure, and is a wonderful book on man's interactions with nature and the environment.

A shipwreck strands a family headed for the new world with nothing but the ship's supplies and each other on a desert isle. Through hard work and knowledge of the natural world, they are able to not just survive, but thrive on the island. There is no better adventure in the natural world survival story.

This book is so good and so well-regarded that there have been multiple schmaltzy movie versions over the years. DON'T SEE THEM UNTIL YOU READ THE BOOK! The writing moves well and the plot line includes plenty of excitement. Although this book is 200 years old, the author wrote it as an action book and it does not drag like other works of the time like "Last of the Mohicans" or "Robinson Crusoe". Robinson Crusoe is another famous survival story written prior to this book, but it suffers from being a morality play with little action and long descriptive sections that are frankly boring. The Swiss Family Robinson is a much better book.

This is a particularly clean book also and is perfect for younger readers as well. Highly recommended.

This is a book with an interesting premise and wonderful setting but it tends to wear itself out at times. Most of the book focuses on the explorations and inventions made by the family. This is good and and a huge part of the charm of the book but there was not enough attention paid to character development. For example, very little attention centered on the realization that they were stranded and unlikely to be rescued and the emotional response to this. Additionally they seldom faced serious problems to contend with or story lines that spanned for more than 15 pages.

The writing style is older which makes it harder to read without getting hung up wording or phrasing that's unusual in books published nowadays.

I liked the book but it was a real effort to get through and I felt that it could have been a lot better if more happened or if it focused more on the development of the characters.

This is considered a classic, and I liked a lot action and the inventions the family created when they were stranded on the island, but I was not able to keep my disbelief suspended. For example, the father knew every species they came across. I don't believe that anyone in 1800, no matter how well-read he was, would react to every species (both plant and animal) with a spurt of perfect knowledge of that species. Fun book, for the most part.