One of the first novels ever written‎,‎ Daniel Defoe‎'‎s Robinson Crusoe ‎(‎1719‎)‎‎,‎ the classic adventure story of a man marooned on an island for nearly 30 years‎,‎ is part of our culture‎.‎ From Scott O‎'‎Dell‎'‎s Island of the Blue Dolphins ‎(‎1960‎)‎ to the recent movie Castaway‎,‎ the elemental situation of the person suddenly alone‎,‎ who must make a life in a dangerous environment‎,‎ continues to enthrall all ages‎.‎ Yet few adults‎,‎ never mind young people‎,‎ can wade through Defoe‎'‎s lengthy tome with its convoluted eighteenth‎-century prose‎.‎ So here‎'‎s a shortened storybook version‎-‎-retold by Timothy Meis in accessible style‎,‎ yet true to the spirit of the original and the time when it was first published‎-‎-in a large picture‎-book format with clear type‎,‎ high‎-quality paper‎,‎ and more than a dozen unforgettable narrative paintings by Wyeth‎,‎ first published in 1920 and newly reproduced here in glowing color‎.‎ The story begins with the universal quest‎:‎ the young man in Britain‎,‎ torn between his safe home and his hunger for adventure‎,‎ breaks away from his loving father and sails away into the unknown‎.‎ After a series of harrowing escapes‎,‎ he‎'‎s shipwrecked on a desert island‎.‎ His lively first‎-person account shows how his intelligence and education help him survive for many years‎,‎ and how he uses technology‎,‎ including guns and tools salvaged from the ship‎.‎ He sets up home‎,‎ reads the Bible‎,‎ finds a parrot as a pet‎,‎ and even devises a calendar to keep track of time‎.‎ Then one day he finds a human footprint‎:‎ ‎"‎Was it someone who could save me and take me back to civilization‎?‎ Or was it a savage who landed here‎?‎‎"‎ When some ‎"‎savages‎"‎ arrive in several canoes‎,‎ he uses his guns to get rid of them‎,‎ and he rescues one of their captives‎,‎ a handsome fellow with very dark skin‎.‎ Delighted to have a companion at last‎,‎ Crusoe names the newcomer Friday ‎(‎since Crusoe found him on Friday‎)‎‎.‎ Crusoe teaches ‎"‎my man Friday‎"‎ to speak English‎,‎ fire a gun‎,‎ carve a canoe‎,‎ and clothe his nakedness‎,‎ and they live happily together‎.‎ Later they rescue a white man and Friday‎'‎s father from a group of ‎"‎savages‎,‎‎"‎ and‎,‎ eventually‎,‎ they all return to their homes‎.‎ Defoe is said to have based his novel on the true adventures of Alexander Selkirk ‎(‎who spent four or five years on an island in the South Pacific‎)‎ and on accounts of other castaways of the time‎.‎ The survival adventure is still enthralling‎.‎ But what about the racism‎?‎ This is clearly the classic colonialist story‎,‎ but whose history is it‎?‎ And how will young people read it today‎?‎ Is it just boring‎,‎ politically correct nitpicking to object to the use of the word ‎"‎savages‎"‎ throughout the book and even on the book flap‎?‎ Yes‎,‎ there are some bad guys among the whites‎,‎ but even they are called ‎"‎men‎"‎‎;‎ the dark‎-skinned people are always known as ‎"‎savages‎.‎‎"‎ How do we talk about this story today‎?‎ The guns and tools make Crusoe boss‎,‎ but wouldn‎'‎t Friday have been able to teach the newcomer some survival skills‎?‎ Does it never occur to Crusoe to learn Friday‎'‎s own name and language‎?‎ Who discovered whom‎?‎ Wyeth‎'‎s clear‎,‎ action‎-packed illustrations are magnificent‎.‎ But there‎'‎s one shockingly jarring scene of Friday groveling in gratitude at Crusoe‎'‎s feet‎.‎ When the whites say thanks‎,‎ they embrace each other‎.‎ So‎,‎ no‎,‎ the objections are not just P‎.‎ C‎.‎ sermonizing‎.‎ The racism is highly offensive‎.‎ But the fact that the story is so widely known and has such elemental appeal makes this an excellent book for discussion‎,‎ especially in classes studying the history of exploration and discovery‎.‎ Louise Erdrich addressed a similar problem [BKL Ap 1 99] when she commented that although she had loved the Little House books as a child‎,‎ in rereading them as an adult‎,‎ she was shocked to recognize that ‎"‎not only was there no consciousness about the displaced people whose land the newcomers were taking‎,‎ but also that there was a fair amount of racism‎.‎‎"‎ Still‎,‎ she disagrees with censorship of any kind‎:‎ ‎"‎The best way is for good teachers and parents to install racism radar detectors so that kids can make their own judgments‎,‎ because they‎'‎re going to have to‎.‎‎"‎ Robinson Crusoe is part of the fine Scribner Storybook Classic series that includes The Last of the Mohicans and Robin Hood‎,‎ all of which bring readers to Wyeth‎'‎s paintings‎.‎ Treasure Island will be out later this year‎.‎ Hazel Rochman‎.‎