Doctor Dolittle heads for the high seas in perhaps the most amazing adventure ever experienced by man or animal! Told by 9-and-a-half-year-old Tommy Stubbins, crewman and future naturalist, Doctor Dolittle and company survive a perilous shipwreck and land on the mysterious, floating Spidermonkey Island. There he meets the Great Glass Sea Snail who holds the key to the biggest mystery of all.

The famous adventure about the eccentric doctor with a special bond to animals in an unabridged, original-text version.

I picked this up at my library and read it to my nieces (ages 7 and 9) without realizing that this is actually the second book in the series.

I've seen some other reviewers complain of the episodic writing (there's not much tying all the different chapters together), but I actually like this kind of writing in children's books, and my nieces enjoyed it just fine, also.

What I didn't like is that the British Doctor Dolittle is described as being nearly perfect, something I hate in any character. He is the hero, not just the protagonist, of the story. He is portrayed as the only person who knows anything - everyone else is just plain stupid most of the time.

A note in the front of the book mentioned that this version had been edited to remove racist/offensive content. I don't know what content was removed, but I thought there was still a lot of subtle (not so subtle?) racism left intact. ( )

Some of its sentiments are a bit dated anachronistic. Still, a good read about a fantastic voyage.
We'll never know, but one gets the sense that Lofting ran out of steam and hurried them all home toward the end. ( )

Cuuute. It’s ridiculous, and absurd, and all adjectives in that area. The pace was fast, and new “oh dears!” kept developing. I think this will remain a book that kids would, and should, enjoy.
However... once I hit the end I realized I was reading an edited version. I was under the impression that I'm against censoring books, but once I read the original, it turns out I prefer the updated edition. The changes made were relatively subtle and don’t make much of an impact on the storyline. However, I certainly had a more negative look at Dr. Dolittle for calling Bumpo’s people derogatory words in the first few chapters, and I didn't like how haughtily Polynesia treated him. It makes a vastly different character impression by removing a few words here and there, amazingly.
I maintain my review with the caveat that people stick with the updated version, though that does seem a little strange to me. ( )