Title:
Arrgh!
Author:
Stacey R. Campbell
Illustrator: M.S. Corley
Publisher:
Green Darner Press
Date
of Release: Nov. 1, 2014)
Genre:
Middle Grade / Adventure
Publisher:
Green Darner Press (November 1, 2014)
ISBN-13:
978-0988478442
Hard
Cover and Paperback (282 pages)
Kindle
(284 pages)
ASIN:
B00MX7ATRM
Author
Website: http://www.staceyrcampbell.com
By Marlan Warren for Midwest Book Review
Arrgh! is a true treasure: Five
not-easy lessons on the high seas. Stacey R. Campbell's Kidnapped-by-Pirates
tale is greater than the sum of its title.
This
Coming of Age Voyage takes off like a cannon blast when a runaway orphan finds
himself forced onto a cargo ship by pirates posing as merchant seamen, and
gathers momentum with inventive action until its gratifying conclusion.
Thirteen-year-old
Christopher has escaped from an orphanage to search for family members.
Ironically, he is nabbed off the street by two pirate thugs who pass him off to
the ship's captain as a relative. Threatened with death if he does not pretend
to be mute, Christopher enters a world of repressed silence—broken only during
moments when he can communicate with Leo the Attack-for-Hire Mouse who comes to
his assistance as a kind of life coach. The trained and certified Leo sets
about teaching the timid youth Five Life Lessons.
Campbell
deftly melds fantasy with reality; excitement with education; and classical
storytelling with contemporary sensibility that honors Friendship, Family and
Literacy.
As
in Peter Pan, there is a line between non-adult and adult perceptions and abilities.
When Christopher is befriended by the Captain's twelve-year-old daughter Lucy,
it turns out that she can also understand the talking animals who come their
way because she is not an adult. And when the duo find themselves stranded on
an island, they revel in it as a paradise where they can do whatever they want
without adult interference.
In
a world where many are illiterate, Lucy begins to crack the mystery of
Christopher when she sees him reading books from her father’s library.
Herein
lie the expected dark moments and violence of the genre. However, Christopher
and Lucy achieve their victories through The Power of the Plan—hopping from
plan to plan as their fates shift.
The
biggest lesson comes to Christopher when he must stay on the island without
Lucy, and subdue the pirates with only the assistance of animal helpers. He
comes out of it with this newfound truth: "I was never alone."
Young
readers will be enthralled by the vivid imagery that makes up the swashbuckling
action sequences, as well as the evocative sights and smells of this time
period. A Glossary of Nautical Terms opens the book. Lessons include such
vintage practical gems as how to manage a galleon in a storm. M.S. Corley's
beautiful vintage-style illustrations would be at home in the earliest editions
of any classic pirate tale.
How does it end? Here's a hint:
Lesson Number Five brought tears to my eyes.
