Stories of lost treasure, placement of Davey Jones' locker,
endless blue seas and the life of a pirate is mysterious and glamorous--yet
scary, unknown and daunting. Barry Wolverton has created a new series of Pirate
lore, The Vanishing Island: The
Chronicles of the Black Tulip. I do participate yearly in "Talk Like A
Pirate Day," but I am not one to pick up and read a pirate book; however,
I have two young boys who are constantly needing age appropriate books which
will challenge their reading. So, alas
me hearties, I dove into a Pirate Book.
Through the life of
Bren, a young apprentice to Rand McNally, famous Map maker ,we see a young boy
who aspires to be more than the small town will let him be. Bren was left a
coin and a tale of a vanishing island from his Mother before she died. Bren is
convinced the tale is true and he must get on a boat and sail into the blue
yonder to discover this island and its treasure. He attempts multiple times to sneak
on a ship to only become the town's only juvenile delinquent in charge of the
vomitorium. (You must read the book to discover what exactly a vomitorium is!)
Bren's Mother's story, make believe and only that of bed
times, becomes more fact than fiction when the Albatross docks with an Admiral looking for a missing coin---and
this Admiral has a tattoo, the one from the Order of the Black Tulip. Coinciding
with the ships arrival is a man who shows up to Bren's vomitorium to leave in
his last dying breath (or regurgitation) a coin engraved with a map.
Bren figures a way onto the ship, meeting new crewmates, a
mysterious cook, a rich man who is sponsoring the voyage among other colorful
and delightful characters. Wolverton has researched life of a sailor and it is
apparent. The terminology of ship life is consistent throughout the story along
with the amazing description of the not-so-pleasant life of a sailor. I laugh
as I keep writing sailor; PIRATE would be more apropos! I cannot wait to pass
this book along to middle school boys (girls too). The dialect can be a little
bit rough, but there was no profanity or anything I found to be
questionable. It is gross. It is
informational in nature. It is funny. It is scary. It is to be continued....
You can read the rest of the review at Books and WhatNot
No comments:
Post a Comment