Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy [Hardcover]

L. A. Meyer (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bloody Jack Adventures | Publication Date: September 1, 2002

Life as a ship's boy aboard HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of eighteenth-century London. Instead, Jacky is becoming a skilled and respected sailor as the crew pursues pirates on the high seas.
There's only one problem: Jacky is a girl. And she will have to use every bit of her spirit, wit, and courage to keep the crew from discovering her secret. This could be the adventure of her life--if only she doesn't get caught. . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"I prays for deliverance," confides Mary Faber, orphaned at eight years old by a pestilence that relegates her to a life of begging and petty crime on the streets of London. After her gang's leader is killed, she dons his clothing, trading in the name Mary for Jack, and takes to the high seas aboard the HMS Dolphin. Meyer evokes life in the 18th-century Royal Navy with Dickensian flair. He seamlessly weaves into Jacky's first-person account a wealth of historical and nautical detail at a time when pirates terrorized the oceans. Interspersed are humorous asides about her ongoing struggle to maintain "The Deception" (she fashions herself a codpiece and emulates the "shake-and-wiggle action" of the other boys when pretending to use the head, for instance), she earns her titular nickname in a clash with pirates and survives a brief stretch as a castaway before her true identity is discovered (the book ends as she's about to be shipped off to a school for young ladies in Boston). The narrative's dialect occasionally falters, but this detracts only slightly from the descriptive prose ("He's got muscles like a horse and looks to have a brain to match") and not at all from the engine driving this sprawling yarn: the spirited heroine's wholly engaging voice. Her budding sexuality (which leads to a somewhat flawed plotline involving a secret shipboard romance) and a near-rape by a seaman mark this one for older readers, who will find the salty tale a rattling good read. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-8-With the plague running rampant in London in 1797, Mary's parents and sister are soon counted among the dead. Left alone and penniless, the eight-year-old is taken in by a gang of orphans and learns survival skills. However, when their leader is killed, Mary decides to try her luck elsewhere. She strips the dead body, cuts her hair, renames herself Jack Faber, and is soon employed as a ship's boy on the HMS Dolphin. When the vessel sees its first skirmish with a pirate ship, her bravery saves her friend Jaimy and earns her the nickname "Bloody Jack." Told by Mary/Jack in an uneven dialect that sometimes doesn't ring true, the story weaves details of life aboard the Dolphin. Readers see how she changes her disguise based on her own physical changes and handles the "call of nature," her first experiences with maturation, and the dangers to boys from unscrupulous crew members. The protagonist's vocabulary, her appearance and demeanor, and her desire to be one of the boys and do everything they do without complaint complete the deception. This story also shows a welcome slant to this genre with an honorable, albeit strict Captain, and ship's mates who are willing and able teachers. If readers are looking for a rousing, swashbuckling tale of pirates and adventures on the high seas, this title falls short. However, it is a good story of a brave ship's "boy" with natural leadership abilities and a sense of fair play and humanity.
Kit Vaughan, Chesterfield County Public Schools, VA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; 1st edition (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152167315
• ISBN-13: 978-0152167318
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #207,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

L. A. MEYER is the author of Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy. He also has been a designer and an art teacher, and is currently the curator and exhibitor at the Clair de Loon Gallery near his home in Corea, Maine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Curious adventures, indeed, November 24, 2005

By 

Tom Knapp "Rambles.NET editor" (Lancaster, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy (Hardcover)

The Jacky of the title was born Mary Faber, whose life turned upside down when a pestilence in 1797 left her orphaned and homeless. She turned to the streets, surviving for a few years by begging, brawling and occasionally stealing on the dirty streets of London. But she lost her taste for that life when her best mate was "done for" by a vile city graverobber, and with few options remaining she hacked away her hair, changed her name, lied about her age and secured a post as a ship's boy on HMS Dolphin.

It's not an adventure-a-minute kind of book, nor will you see Jacky single-handedly besting entire pirate crews with her little knife. The book has a stronger sense of reality to it than that; Jacky has adventures, yes, but author L.A. Meyer never makes the mistake of making her superhuman. She makes mistakes, she runs afoul of bad circumstances, she feels fear. The dangers that threaten are very real, and the tone of the book sometimes is very dark. But through it all, she remains a plucky, cheerful girl, bouncing quickly back from misfortune, who loves to eat, dance and feel the wind in her face.

Bloody Jack is a a rollicking good time, a colorful yarn with a lively protagonist and a boatload of action. Once begun, the book is difficult to put down; once completed, it's hard not to leap immediately into the next in the series.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One terrific swashbuckler! One amazing Ship's Girl!, October 10, 2005

By 

H. S. Wedekind "Mr. Weekend" (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy (Hardcover)

I'm not normally a reader of sea stories, though I have read a few. All that technical ship information about mizzens, and fo'c's'les, and spankers, and such caused my eyes to blur and my head to hurt; however, not so in this wonderful novel. I can easily follow her duties around the HMS Dolphin and her simple explanations about the ship's rigging. Jacky is a dear girl and her daily observations about life on land and aboard the HMS Dolphin and her "Deception" are informative, entertaining, and humorous. She's a gutsy young woman who somehow survives the many scrapes and dangerous situations she manages to get herself into. While Jacky is tough on the outside, she is still all girl on the inside, which makes her also tender when she needs to be. She's loyal to her mates and cheerful no matter what. We share in her love of life and cheer her on. We also feel her sadness...as when, after having fallen deeply in love with Jaime, she is separated from him at the end. I'm sure this part brought a tear to many a reader's eye. I'm currently reading book two: CURSE OF THE BLUE TATTOO. It's even more packed with misadventures than the first book. Keep writng Mr. Meyer! I can't get enough of Jacky Faber.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bloody Jack, April 29, 2004

By 

marcine (New Paltz,NY,USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy (Hardcover)

I thought it was a really,really good book, and i have read many. i almost didnt want it to end. Its about an orphan girl who, after the tradjic death of her beloved Chalie, the leader of the gang of orphans she lived with,escapes this hard unforgiving life by disguising herself as a boy to get a spot on the navel ship The Dolphin. There she gets good, constant meals for the first time in her life and forms a close friendship with the other ship's boys. She puts up with the trials of being a ship's boy such as the beatings of an evil middshippman,and the sexual harrassment of another evil shipmate.This is along with the many obsticals she faces to conseal her true identity which include her changing body and her feminity which even (gasp) makes her shipmates suspect her of being queer. But there are many wonederful things about her new life such as Jaimy, the ship's boy she falls in love with, and the thrill of chasing down and fighting pirates. I can't even describe how wonderfull this book really is.i thought at first it would be just another pirate book but i was woderfully wrong.I would recomend it to anyone who loves a good action packed book with a side of heart racing romance. it made me laugh out loud and cry, and any book that can do that is well worth the time.READ IT! It wont let you down.