Jim Davis: High-Sea Adventure, A - Hardcover

John Masefield

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0439404363 ISBN 13: 9780439404365

Publisher: Chicken House, 2002

Synopsis

An action-packed adventure, set in the old world of smugglers and buccaneers. The classic story is given new life in this new edition, featuring an introduction by bestselling author Michael Mopurgo.

Jim Davis is an ordinary twelve-year-old boy whose life takes a terrifying turn when he stumbles upon a ring of bloodthirsty pirates.At first, Jim delights in the thrill and adventure of sailing the seas and living the life of an outlaw. But Marah, the fierce buccaneer who leads the pirates, proves to be more dangerous than Jim first imagined. Will Jim find a way to escape from Marah ,or will he be lost at sea forever? Nearly 80 years after its original publication, John Masefield's classic tale has been brought back into print with an introduction by award-winning author Michael Morpurgo.

About this title

About the Author:

John Masefield (1878-1967) is in the highest class as a writer of clear, muscular English, whether he is writing about the countryside he loved so well, or, as in this book, the sea, with which he maintained that love-hate relationship which is the hallmark of the genuine seaman, ' writes Professor Lloyd. Brought up in Herefordshire and soon orphaned, Masefield was trained on the Conway at Liverpool, served his apprenticeship in windjammers, sailed around the Horn and was beached in New York before he was eighteen. His experiences in these impressionable years stayed with him for the rest of his life. Back in England at the turn of the century, Masefield worked for the Manchester "Guardian" and published two books of verse (one which contained 'Sea Fever') and a collection of short stories before "Sea Life" in "Nelson's Time" was published in 1905. He became famous in 1911 with the publication of "Everlasting Mercy", when the use of the word 'bloody' created a sensation. Reynard the Fox, published in 1919, consolidated his position. In 1930 he was appointed Poet Laureate and other honours followed, notably the Order of Merit in 1935.

From Publishers Weekly:

Best known perhaps for his poem "Sea-Fever" ("I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,/ And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by"), Masefield (1878-1967) produced this rattling yarn in 1911. The tale of a 12-year-old boy who falls in with smugglers could trace its lineage back to the swashbuckling stories of Robert Louis Stevenson and may find its modern-day offspring in such works as Iain Lawrence's High Seas trilogy. Jim, an orphan, is sent to live with relatives along the Devon coast. There he accidentally witnesses the deeds of a troop of night-riders, or smugglers, and becomes caught up in their shadowy, dangerous world of excise men, sea caves and illicit cargo. Forced to sign on for a voyage ("You've got to become one of us, so as if you give us away you'll be in the same boat," explains Marah Gorsuch, a mesmerizing, larger-than-life night-rider who might be friend or foe), Jim faces hurdle after hurdle. From a skirmish with a British frigate to a nightmarish chase on horseback to run-ins with soldiers and gypsies, the plot stays rip-roaring, and the atmospheric prose ("the strange moan of the snow-wind") supplies a polished, literary veneer. Ages 9-12.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chicken House
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0439404363
• ISBN 13: 9780439404365
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224