Jump Ship to Freedom

What do you get when you put a historian/professor together with his brother the writer? You get a slew of great historical fiction, including Jump Ship to Freedom.

James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier have been writing books together for my entire life. Probably their best known book is the Newbery Honor Book My Brother Sam is Dead. I can't recommend that one yet because haven't read it, but I would certainly encourage you to read this well-written book.

James and Christopher have a solid method that makes their collaboration successful. Christopher comes up with the ideas for the books, and then he does meticulous research on the time period and its people. When he has put down his ideas of what should be included in the story, he hands it over to James who puts flesh onto the bare bones. Finally, they pass the manuscript back and forth until they are happy with it, and Christopher has done one final check of the historical data to make sure everything is accurate. It's a winning combination!

Jump Ship to Freedom is a book set in the late 1700's, right at the time the Constitutional Convention is happening in Philadelphia. Daniel Arabus, the main character, and his mother are slaves in Connecticut. Daniel's father fought in the Revolutionary War in place of his master, Captain Ivers, and this service was to earn him his freedom. Captain Ivers didn't grant it, so Jack Arabus took him to court - and won! He intended to buy his wife and son's freedom with the soldiers' notes he earned in the war, but there was no government established that would pay on the notes. Shortly before this story begins, Jack Arabus is lost at sea.

The soldiers' notes are confiscated by the Ivers's, but Daniel steals them back. Captain Ivers tells Daniel to get ready to sail - something he's never done - but the captain's real purpose is to sell Daniel in the West Indies. En route, they encounter a terrible storm that debilitates the ship and washes away some of the crew, so they have to put in port in New York. This delights Daniel because his plan had been to go to New York and meet with a man who not only knew his father, but who, he hoped, would help him get money for the soldiers' notes.

But how will Daniel get the notes out of the dresser he hid them in? And how will he get away from Captain Ivers? And how does he end up being a messenger for the Quakers who are trying to put anti-slavery language into the Constitution? You'll just have to read Jump Ship to Freedom to find out.

One-Eyed Cat

Once upon a time there was a little girl and her big sister. Often the big sister would tuck the little girl into bed at night. After songs and kisses and cross of Jesus, the big sister would say, "Good night, Punk-a-wunk," and close the door.

It was the same way each time, until one night, when the big sister said, "Good night, Punk-a-wunk," the funny little girl said, "Good night, you one eye cat!"

And the rest, as they say, is history.....

After years of having this book, One-Eyed Cat by Paula Fox, sit on my shelf, I decided to read it - in honor of my little sister Elizabeth. (Yes, yes...I know you're a grown up now, and a teacher no less, but you will always be my Punk-a-wunk!)

This book is as strange as that nickname Elizabeth gave me, which came entirely out of the blue. I remember laughing right out loud that first night she said it. But there was no laughing in this book.

Ned Wallis is the only child of a preacher and an invalid mother. (She's suffering from inflammatory rheumatism.) For his 11th birthday that fall, his mother's brother, Uncle Hilary, gives him an air rifle, against his parents' better judgment. Ned's parents say he can have it in a few years, but he's drawn to the thing. That night, Ned can't sleep, and so he retrieves the loaded air rifle from the attic and takes it outside into the woods. When his eye catches a moving shadow, he doesn't think, doesn't hesitate, just shoots......at something living. Immediately he regrets his choice, and to top it off, when he comes home, he notices someone watching him out the attic window.

Guilt consumes Ned. He can't tell his parents what he's done; he can't even tell Mr. Scully, the elderly neighbor for whom he does odd jobs, and they tell each other plenty. Winter approaches, and one day Ned sees a sick cat with an empty eye socket, and he knows this must be the shadow he shot at.

Ned does all he can to help the cat. He thinks about it day and night. He plans his life around helping the cat, cancelling a Christmas vacation trip with Uncle Hilary simply because if he's gone, who will take care of the cat?

This is a hard book to recommend. It's not that I didn't like the book, but I don't think my students would like it. More so, I don't know if they would "get" it. I think the book has great irony - Ned's overwhelming guilt incapacitates him more than his mother's illness does her. And there's definitely a lesson to be learned about how disobedience, combined with withholding the truth, leads you into greater unresolved internal conflict. The longer Ned waits, the worse it gets. The guy is in some serious need of Peacemaker skills!

One-Eyed Cat is a Newbery Honor Book besides receiving a host of other honors. Plenty of people thought, and think, this book is a winner. Will you?

Peter and the Starcatchers

My latest reading voyage was filled with excitement as I tore through Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's book Peter and the Starcatchers. You are going to finish this book in a hurry - I would bet money on it. As a matter of fact, I made a bet on this book a few days ago. One of my students was reading it too, so we made a bet as to who was going to finish it first.

I finished at 11:05pm on Friday night. How'd you do, Seth?

Peter and the Starcatchers is the first of three books (#2 - Peter and the Shadow Thieves, #3 - Peter and the Secret of Rundoon) that tells what happened prior to the Peter Pan story we all know and love. I love the authors' acknowledgement at the beginning: "And above all we thank Paige Pearson, for asking her daddy one night, after her bedtime story, exactly how a flying boy met a certain pirate." I never cease to be amazed at the well from which interesting stories are drawn, and I love the innocent way the idea for this story was planted in the authors' minds.

Without giving too much away, I will tell you that this book has orphans traveling the high seas, pirates chasing the fastest British ship so as to steal a trunk containing the greatest treasure on earth, a brave girl who can speak to mammals other than humans, and mermaids and savages and a beast named Mister Grin.

This is a must-read for boys and girls. If you don't enjoy it, I'll eat my eye-patch. I'm just sorry that I have four more books on ice - if I didn't, I'd have raced to the bookstore this weekend for the two books that follow.