1924 - The Dark Frigate

Another book about sailing. The Newbery folks must love the open seas. (Even The Story of Mankind had chapters on navy battles.)

Actually, the first part of this book takes place on land, and it's incredibly slow going until the main character finally gets on board the ship. This is compounded by the crazy writing style, which uses language like it was written a hundred years before The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle and The Story of Mankind, and likes long, clause-drowned sentences. Take the second sentence of the book, for example:

"His father was master of a London ketch, and they say that before the boy could stand unaided on his two feet he would lean himself, as a child does, against the waist in a seaway, and never pipe a whimper when she thrust her bows down and shipped enough water to douse him from head to heels."

On top of that, the story is set in the 17th century, so the dialogue is more akin to Shakespeare than Sachar. All of this adds up to a book that may be difficult for a middle schooler to tackle, which is the audience the Newbery Medal is targeted for.

With all that said, though, once the book does get going, it is very enjoyable. It's a book about pirates, so there are fights and mutinies and all of that. But it's got a bit of a twist - the pirates are somewhat inept. They attack a ship, and find out it's armed to the teeth and flee. They raid a town and get chased out without any plunder. But none of it is played for comedy; the main character, a non-pirate forced into service, is still in danger throughout the book.

Speaking of which, the main character is a great one. He's a teenage version of the strong, honest loner archetype, having been born sailing and all his family dead or estranged. It's easy to root for him, and enough of the other major characters die that there's a real sense of danger. Perhaps there's been enough time since the Pirates of the Caribbean films to make him into the next Orlando Bloom and the Old One into Johnny Depp. They'd have to add a love story, since the one in the book is mostly non-existant.

Alright, on to Tales from Silver Lands, which I suspect may have more sailing.