Curse of the Blue Tattoo (Bloody Jack Adventures) [Audio CD]

L.A. Meyer (Author), Katherine Kellgren (narrator) (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bloody Jack Adventures | Publication Date: April 15, 2008

Bloody Jack is back and this time, she's facing a situation far worse than a ship full of murderous pirates. Curse of the Blue Tattoo, L.A. Meyer's sequel to the enormously popular Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary 'Jacky' Faber, Ship s Boy is just as bawdy and entertaining as the original. Left in Boston by the H.M.S. Dolphin crew when they discover her true sex, Jacky Faber finds herself navigating entirely new waters. It turns out that bloodthirsty buccaneers have nothing on the young ladies at the Lawson Peabody School! As Jacky observes, '...they re like any bunch of thirty or so cats thrown in a sack and shaken up good. They re mean in ways that boys never even thought of being.' It isn t long before Jacky shows her true colors by being arrested for 'exposing a Female Part' (her knee) while jigging in the streets and is 'busted down' to serving girl instead of student. Jacky soldiers on, getting herself into scrapes that her darling beau midshipman Jaimy Fletcher couldn't even begin to imagine, including uncovering a shady minister s evil secret and fixing a horse race with voodoo. And where in the world is seafaring Jaimy? As her letters to him continue to go unanswered, Jacky grows more and more worried. Still, at book s end she takes an assignment as 'lady's companion' to the captain s wife aboard a whaler headed for London. Astute readers will notice that the whaler s crabby captain has a peg leg and won t be surprised if in the next Bloody Jack Adventure, Jacky ends up hunting the great white whale!

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 8 Up—The audacious Jacky Faber is back in L.A. Meyer's fabulous sequel (2004) to Bloody Jack (2002, both Harcourt). In the first novel, Jacky cut her hair, put on boy's clothes, changed her name to Jack, and signed on as a ship's boy aboard a Royal Navy frigate. Jacky thrived at sea and attained the rank of a midshipman. When the Navy discovered she was a girl, they dumped her, albeit with great pomp and ceremony, in Boston. This sequel begins as Jacky leaves behind her beloved Jaimy, disembarks in Boston—in a dress—to attend The Lawson Peabody School for Fine Young Girls. Jacky soon discovers that fighting pirates was a piece of cake compared to circumnavigating the complexities of becoming a lady. She fails at embroidery, but excels at sneaking out of school and playing her pennywhistle in taverns. Jacky falls short in French, but ably learns to ride astride a glorious stallion and compete in a horse race. Her table manners are deplorable, but her sleuthing abilities are top notch when she uncovers the murder of a former classmate. Finally giving up, Jacky abandons her school, in flames (don't ask), and jumps aboard a whaling ship to make her way back to Jaimy. Katherine Kellgren delivers a stunning performance with a myriad of amazing voices. Her cockney Jacky is just right and makes the story more accessible to listeners who may struggle with the Brit-speak. Loyal, clever, sassy, impudent, and just a little bit naughty, Jacky is a protagonist to admire. Simply delightful.—Tricia Melgaard, Centennial Middle School, Broken Arrow, OK
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Kellgren continues her tour de force portrayal of Mary “Jacky” Faber in this stand-alone sequel to Bloody Jack, a 2008 Odyssey Award Honor title. After it is discovered that Jacky has been disguising herself as a boy, she is forced to leave her shipmates and true love behind to enter the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in Boston, plunging her into melodramatic escapades. Mean girls and a malevolent headmistress block her path to becoming a proper lady, while stereotypical characters provide colorful Dickensian subplots involving murder and madness. Kellgren voices Jacky’s Cockney patois with such historical accuracy that listeners are pulled into the early nineteenth century, breathlessly entranced by Jacky’s heart-on-her-sleeve, knife-in-her-bosom exploits. Shifting from Bostonian blue-blooded to boozing Irish accents with ease, Kellgren differentiates each character’s dialect with a skill that reaches the crest of emotion yet never spills into over-the-top exaggeration.  Kellgren lyrically provides Jacky’s talent for melody as she effortlessly sings the sea shanties and Irish tunes that heighten the drama and anchor the account in the nautical realm. This masterful production extends the appeal to a wide range of listeners eager for a bloody-good tale. Fans will be happy to know that the next title in the series, Under the Jolly Roger, also read by Kellgren, has recently been released by Listen and Live. Grades 6-9. --Mary Burkey

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Audio CD
• Publisher: Listen & Live Audio, Inc.; Unabridged edition (April 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593161344
• ISBN-13: 978-1593161347
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,148,904 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

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Curse of the Blue Tattoo- an excellent book, November 8, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady (Bloody Jack Adventures) (Hardcover)

Curse of the Blue Tattoo continues the adventures of Jacky Faber after she is sent from the HMS Dolphin after her true gender is disclosed. Jacky is forced to leave her love, Jaimy for a boarding school in Boston, where she is taken to become a "lady".
Jacky soon, on one of her secret trips out of school, shows her knee while dancing for a group of sailors. She is arrested and sent back to her school in disgrace. Miss Pimm, the headmistress demotes Jacky to a serving girl.
Jacky's exploits continue, including many trips to her friend Amy's farm, a murderous Reverend, and entertaining at an inn. Her numerous adventures kept me reading late at night, and although I cannot promise that it will interest you, I would highly recommend this book (after reading its prequel, Bloody Jack).

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Bloody" Terrific, October 14, 2004

By 

The Lady Washington "Alyssa" (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady (Bloody Jack Adventures) (Hardcover)

This is one of the best books for young adults (and up!) to come around for a long time. Though the plot is, at times, not exceptionally unique, Jacky's plucky narrative voice smooths all ruffles. At the end of "Bloody Jack," the prequel to "Curse," autor L.A. Meyer left our heroine standing on a dock in Boston, waiting to be taken to finishing school. This book picks up precisely where the last left off, and as we might expect, Jacky does not even begin to fit in with the priveleged, proper girls at Mistress Pimm's School for Fine Young Ladies. Woven into the story line is a disguised suicide that turns out to be an unsolved murder, a strained young love, and of course, heaping helpings of Jacky's charming wit and innocent naivete that we loved from the first book. (This one's even better.) The ending is a big surprise, even though in hindsight we realize we should've been expecting it - and until that point, you won't be able to put it down. Well worth the read!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Done, once again, July 8, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady (Bloody Jack Adventures) (Hardcover)

Let me tell you something: Creating a sequel to such a great book like "Bloody Jack", is a hard task. But, Mr. Meyer has done it, and he has done it very well. Although the second book does not have as much action as the first, it has just as good of a plot, story and theme. When i found out Mr. Meyer was to make a sequel, i asked myself, "How can he write a sequel and not have the same story line? Obviously she cannot hide the fact that she is a girl any longer, which means she cannot sail the seas. How will Mr. Meyer accomplish the task of writing a second chapter in the Bloody Jack tales? And if he does, will he be succesful?"

The Answer is, yes, this story is equally good, no, equally GREAT as the first one. Nice work Mr. Meyer.