D. August Baertlein - Writer & Ruminator
  • Home
  • My Books
  • Book Reviews
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Contact

Pirates by Celia Rees

9/24/2011

Comments

 
Picture
Nancy Kington wasn’t born into the pirating trade.  She was the daughter of a wealthy sugar merchant in the 1700’s and belonged to a very respectable family.

Of course, it was disgraceful the way her widowed father allowed her to run wild through the streets of Bristol, England with her best friend William, whose mother ran the local tavern, for heaven’s sake. 

And yes, she could have used the manners of a proper finishing school.  Still, no one ever thought she’d go this bad.

When it came down to it, though, she didn’t have any good options.  Nancy was 16 when storms sunk several of her father ships, sending his business into ruin.  To make matters worse, her loving father died suddenly, leaving her in the care of a couple of lazy and greedy brothers.

Before she could recover from the grief of losing her father and her wealth, she was shipped off to her family’s Jamaican sugar plantation.  Without her knowledge she’d been promised in marriage to a wealthy but cruel competing plantation owner known as “The Brazilian.”

When Nancy arrives at her plantation she finds Jamaica to be beautiful and exotic.  Unfortunately, she’s trapped in the manor with no one to talk to.  Slaves are not supposed to mingle with masters, and slaves are the only other people there, aside from the foreman.  And she certainly has no interest in mingling with that creep.

Nancy had always been sheltered from the business of the Jamaican slave trade, but now she is smack in the middle of it, and she doesn’t like it.  As she earns the trust of her maid and the maid’s daughter, Minerva, her life improves.  Theirs does not.

It doesn’t matter that Nancy is, on paper anyway, the plantation owner.  The foreman is the boss and a firm believer that slaves should be kept in their place.  And he and his whip relished the task.

Before Nancy can be married into this trap forever, she and Minerva take off for the hills where they meet up with a band of pirates.  After much debate they are accepted onto the ship where they work and fight alongside the men.

Although pirates are depicted as opportunists, stealing from merchant ships crossing the seas, and killing when they must, there is also an almost good side to them. 

They loath the slave trade, and take special pride in attaching a slave ship and setting the slaves free.  And many of them, like Nancy and Minerva, have their reasons for needing to escape “respectable lives.”

Pirates! is an exciting adventure, with a couple of love stories and a bit of a mystery thrown in.  It’s recommended for grades 7 and up.

Happy reading!


Comments

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

9/13/2011

Comments

 
Picture
The Witch of Blackbird Pond is one classic Newbery Medal winner that flawlessly stands up to the test of time.  This historical novel, which takes place in 1687, was published fifty-one years ago, yet it reads like it could have come out last week.

Sixteen-year-old Katherine (Kit) Tyler is forced to leave her home in sunny Barbados when the grandfather who cared for her most of her life dies.  With nowhere else to turn, she sets sail for America and the aunt she knows only through letters.

She creates quite a stir when she arrives unexpectedly in backwoods Connecticut wearing silks and satins.  And even more shocking, she’s able to swim! 

In Puritan America, one way to test a witch is to see whether she floats or sinks when tossed in deep water.  A floater is most certainly a witch and will be punished as such – burned at the stake, most likely. 

A sinker . . . well, she’d most likely drown, but at least she could receive a proper burial as a good Christian woman.

Kit’s willingness to speak her mind puts her at odds with the closed religious community on many occasions.  But the thing that finally condemns her is her friendship with the widow Hannah Tupper, who lives in the meadow by Blackbird pond. 

The old woman is a branded Quaker who was run out of Massachusetts years ago.  She’s allowed to live apart from the community, but some folks fear she’s a witch, and no one dares go near her. 

No one, that is, but Kit.  Kit quickly sees that Hannah is just a kind old woman, and they become fast friends.  Kit eventually discovers that Hannah has another friend in Nat, the son of the boat captain who brought her across the sea, and together they do what they can to take care of the old woman.

This book has great characters and a taste of politics in a time when loyalty to the King of England was a touchy subject.  On top of this, there are three romances, a witch hunt, and an absolutely terrific ending.  (I love a book where everything turns out just like it should.)

The Witch of Blackbird Pond is suggested for grades 5-8. 

I couldn’t put it down as a child, and had the same experience last week at “ever so much more than twenty” (as Jane elusively describes her age at the end of Peter Pan.)

Happy Reading!

Comments

Daughter of the Forest (Sevenwater Trilogy Book #1) by Juliet Marillier

9/3/2011

Comments

 
Picture
Daughter of the Forest (the first in the Sevenwater trilogy) is more than a retelling of the Celtic fairy tale The Six Swans.  Not only is the story enlarged to hold ancient conflicts between the Celts and Britons, but each character has his or her own personality providing more depth and breadth than a traditional fairy tale.

Sorcha’s mother died when she was born.  With her father in mourning and busy defending their Irish land holdings, her six older brothers have raised her and cared for her well.  At twelve she is the healer that the villagers call upon when someone is hurt of falls ill.

Some of her brother’s are militaristic like their father, but Finbar is a peacekeeper. He enlists the aid of his sister to help a captured Briton escape their father’s torture, and heal him back to health.  The young man is both mentally and physically damaged, and Sorcha has a big task ahead of her.

Before she can cure the Briton, an evil sorceress enchants and marries their father.  Life goes from passing good, to frightfully bad.  The father cannot be convinced the woman is evil as she goes about destroying all which Sorcha and her brothers hold dear.

One night while the siblings have gathered to perform a precious ritual and also to send Sorcha off to safety, the sorceress finds them and casts a spell that turns the brothers into swans.

Sorcha flees, but to what she doesn’t know.  The Lady of the Forest comes to her and tells her there is a way she can rescue her brothers, but the task is difficult, perhaps impossible. 

She must not speak or in any way tell her story while she spins and weaves six shirts for her six brothers from painfully stinging Starwart fibers.  If she can manage this, and then puts the shirts on her brothers all within the same moment, the brothers will retake human form.

Sorcha agrees, and goes off into the forest to complete her task.  So begins a long journey of hardship and love, both for her brothers and for the Briton prince who finds her ill and hurt in the forest and takes her back to his castle.

I had the pleasure of meeting Australian author Juliet Marillier at an SCBWI (Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators) writing workshop in June.  She’s a wonderfully modest woman who grew up in a community of Scots immersed in fairy tales and folk music.  In researching her stories she connected with modern day druids, and is now a druid herself.

Find out more about Marillier at her official website.

The Sevenwaters series would be an entertaining read for fairy tale and fantasy enthusiasts age 12 and up.

 

Happy Reading!


Comments

    Author


    ​I only review what I like.  So if you see it here it's good!  If you don't see something you like here, I probably didn't get to it yet.
     
    Recommendations are welcome!


    Subscribe

    RSS Feed


    Archives

    October 2019
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    November 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011


    Categories

    All
    1960's
    911
    Activism
    Adventure
    A Mango-Shaped Space
    Andrew Smith
    Angels And Demons
    Arthur Slade
    Audubon
    Automaton
    A Wrinkle In Time
    Because Of Winn Dixie
    Biotech
    Black Panthers
    Book Review
    Boy Book
    Brian Selznick
    Bullying
    Cancer
    Carl Hiaason
    Carolyn Mackler
    Catching Fire
    Celia Rees
    Celtic Mythology
    Channel Islands
    Chime
    Chinese
    Code Name Verity
    Comedy
    Cory Doctorow
    Daughter Of Smoke And Bone
    Daughter Of The Forest
    Defiance
    Deformity
    Desert
    Divergent
    Dog Story
    Dragons
    Dystopian
    Eco-Thriller
    Egypt
    Elizabeth George Speare
    Elizabeth Wein
    Eve And Adam
    Everlost
    Evolution
    Fairytale
    Fantasy
    Feed
    Flight Of The Phoenix
    Folktale
    Franny Billingsley
    Friendship
    Gardians Of Gahoole
    Gary D. Schmidt
    Genetic Engineering
    Ghost Medicine
    Ghosts
    Grace Lin
    Graceling
    Graphic Novel
    Guardians
    Heart Of Egypt
    Hoot
    Hugo
    Immune Disease
    Iraq
    Irish
    Island Of The Blue Dolphins
    Jacqueline Kelly
    Jamaica
    Jay Asher
    Juliet Marillier
    Kate Dicamillo
    Katherine Applegate
    Kathi Appelt
    Keeper
    Kristin Cashore
    Laini Taylor
    Laurie Brooks
    Legends
    Leviathan
    Little Brother
    Madeline L’Engle
    Maggie Stiefvater
    Magical
    Mary E. Pearson
    Mermaid
    Michael Grant
    Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children
    Mockingjay
    M T Anderson
    Music
    Mystery
    Myths
    Nancy Farmer
    Nathaniel Flood
    Nazi
    Neal Schusterman
    Neil Gaiman
    Newbery
    Okay For Now
    One Crazy Summer
    Operation Iraqi Freedom
    Otters
    Owls
    Paranormal Romance
    Peeps
    Pirates
    Quirky
    Rachel Hartman
    Ransom Riggs
    Rebecca Stead
    Rita Williams-Garcia
    R. J. Palacio
    R. L. LaFevers
    Rl Lafevers
    Romance
    Running Away
    Santa Barbara
    Scat
    Science
    Scifi
    Sci Fi
    Scott O
    Scott Westerfeld
    Scrotum
    Security
    Selkie
    Selkie Girl
    Seraphina
    Seven Tears Into The Sea
    Sheila Turnage
    Skinjacker
    Slavery
    Slaves
    Steampunk
    Sunrise Over Falluja
    Supernatural
    Susan Patron
    Suzanne Collins
    Synesthesia
    Synesthete
    Terri Farley
    Terrorism
    The Adoration Of Jenna Fox
    The Astonishing Life Of Octavian Nothing
    The Ear The Eye And The Arm
    The Evolution Of Calpurnia Tate
    The Future Of Us
    The Graveyard Book
    The Higher Power Of Lucky
    The Hunchback Assignments
    The Hunger Games
    The Invention Of Hugo Cabret
    The New Policeman
    Theodosia And The Serpents Of Chaos
    The Scorpio Races
    The Six Swans
    The Tale Of Despereaux
    The Wednesday Wars
    The Witch Of Blackbird Pond
    Three Times Lucky
    Time Travel
    Valerie Hobbs
    Vampires
    Veronica Roth
    Vietnam
    Walter Dean Myers
    War
    Wendy Mass
    Whales On Stilts
    When You Reach Me
    Where The Mountain Meets The Moon
    Witches
    Witch Trials
    Wonder
    World War Ii
    Wwi
    Wwii
    Zimbabwe

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.