Rating  - Swashbuckling for Juniors
Twelve-year-old Nick McIver loves his idyllic life on Greybeard Island, the smallest of England's Channel Islands. He spends his days on his little sloop, the Stormy Petrel, exploring the coastline and mapping reefs with his little sister Katie. Their father is the lighthouse keeper at Greybeard Light, and their happy family lives there. Nick's father Angus has a secret hobby, though. He's a "birdwatcher," scouting the Channel for German U-boats and airplanes, and reporting to Winston Churchill, in direct violation of orders from the government.
One day while out exploring in the Stormy Petrel, Nick and Katie come upon a sea chest in the sand, bearing the name Nicholas McIver, which was also the name of an ancestor of theirs. A mean red parrot sitting on the chest bites Katie and flies off, and Nick hides the chest in a cave for exploring later because the weather is getting ugly. On the way home, the storm drives Nick and Katie to stop in a nearby pub where the owner, Gunner, will give them hot tea. The red parrot is there, sitting with a menacing pair, Billy Blood and Snake, a thug with red snakes tattooed on his face. After frightening Gunner and the children, they disappear. When Nick's dog Jip is kidnapped by Billy Blood the same day his parents are called to London, they ask Gunner to watch the children, and Nick convinces him to go with him to the cave to collect the sea chest, Blood's ransom for his dog. Once they retrieve the chest and begin sailing for the rendezvous with Blood, an encounter with a German U-boat leads them to mysterious Hawke Castle, where they defy security measures and gain an audience with Lord Hawke, the castle's reclusive owner, whose own children have also been kidnapped by Billy Blood. They open the sea chest with the help of Hawke's close friend Hobbes, a high-ranking British admiral, to find a time machine and a note from Nick's ancestor, Captain Nicholas McIver, who needs help in a sea battle against Billy Blood 130 years earlier.
While Nick, Gunner, and Lord Hawke travel back in time to battle Billy Blood, Hobbes and Katie sail for London to deliver the information Nick collected on the German U-boat to Winston Churchill, and they soon find themselves captured by the Germans. Both Hobbes and little Katie have to use their wits to not only survive, but outsmart the Germans, while Nick, Lord Hawke, and Gunner combine their abilities to assist Captain McIver in his battle against Billy Blood, as well as rescuing Jip, Hawke's children, and a whole brig full of kidnapped children and pets.
Though enjoyable for all readers, this book would be an excellent choice for a preteen. The violence and language are mild, and its protagonist is 12 years old. The story is told mostly from a kid's perspective, too. I liked the dual adventures against fearsome adversaries in both 1939 and the distant past. Though not as globe-hoppingly exciting as his Alex Hawke adventures, this was a pretty good page turner a kid could especially love.
Rating - smitty
I have read Ted Bell's novels prior to this one and even tho i thought it might have been written for a junior I felt that it was highly enjoyable. The enjoyable action was there but it did not have the female relationships that Lord Hawke had in his exploits, as I felt the later novels were meant for a more mature readership.
Rating  - "This adventure story has it all!" - Writer's Digest
From its striking dust cover art to its beautiful binding and print, this middle-grade adventure story has it all: boats and the sea, pirates, castles, Nazis, and time travel. It has everything a young reader could want. The writing is crisp, clear, and practically flawless. Description and scene setting put the reader in the middle of things where he or she is immediately drawn into the adventure with the leading characters, Nick and Kate. As the story progresses, more and more actors are sprinkled in until a full host are moving the story faster and faster forward toward a roaring climax. Action never stops in the great novel which rivals Robert Lewis Stevenson's Treasure Island in size and scope. The author covers this book's sometimes rapid point of view changes with seamless transition and skill seldom seen in a beginning writer.
Rating - "OUTSTANDING IN EVERY WAY!"
This book is an absolute gem! A great read for young or old or both and should be on every child's bookshelf. Very much in the style of Robert Louis Stevenson but written with a modern reader in mind. The hero, young Nick McIver is 12 when he discovers his father is spying on the Nazis for Churchill. The year is 1939 and war looms. Through a series of exiciting events, Nick and his sister Kate join forces to discover the secrets of an experimental German U-boat and, in a delightful twist, Nick comes to the aid of his ancestor who sails under Lord Nelson. Splendid rip-roaring tale and too bad they don't write them like this anymore!
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Customer Reviews for St. Martin's Griffin,0312380682,9780312380687,0312380682, |
