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• 1922 Newbery Honor Book

  I've read all of the Medal and Honor books for the 1922 Newbery Award and this is the book that I think should have won that year because of its use as a teaching tool (I wasn't overly impressed with any of the books for 1922). Of course, that means this book will appeal more to parents and teachers than the children, ha. On the surface, this book appears to be a pirate adventure story for children but, plunge deeper, and the horrors of the African slave-trade make themselves known. This book was written at a time when pirate tales were popular among young boys. Those romanticized stories revolve around stolen gold without going into too much detail about where that gold came from or how it was claimed. This book takes those pirate tales one step further, showing children how those treasure hordes were often linked to the trade in human flesh. Is this book PC? Absolutely not, but the language preserves a time when these attitudes were socially-acceptable while also illustrating the human slave trade. This book can be used as a stepping stone for teaching children about the history of racism. I recommend using this book in conjunction with nonfiction historical accounts of the slavery-bans on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean to help show kids how the world used to be and to help them understand why some people have given so much to change it (from the British Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 to the American Civil War to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and on into the present day). I wish the story had more action, particularly for the main character Joe Woods. He stands around, watching, for most of the book. Hawes also lapsed into telling instead of showing, which can frustrate any reader at any age. The ship's journeys -from New England to Cuba to Africa and back to South America and New England- are glossed over. Those depictions could have been interesting and helped with the romanticism of the age. The language is sometimes archaic; the dictionary capabilities of eReaders can help with the vocabulary. And the book is free; free copies can be found at both Amazon and Project Gutenberg.

• down-voted for poor printing

  Regardless of the story itself, the book has problems as a re-issue of an out of copyright book. 1) There are no page numbers. 2) The illustrations are missing despite captions being there and large blank spaces included for the illustrations. I intend to get the illustrations from Project Gutenberg and will tip them in. 3) The print is very small despite somewhat excess upper and lower margins into which the text could have been expanded. 4) There is no title or author noted on the spine, so good luck spotting it on a bookcase. These faults are noticed without yet reading the book. Hopefully, no more will become apparent as I read. Epic House Publishers, perhaps you need to hire another person for quality control.

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