(But BookMoot, you are in a blogging void anyway so why bother even mentioning this?)
Well, I have just finished listening to an astounding performance in audiobook-ness. (I can do important Christmas/wedding thinking while listening to a book, I just can't read text and simultaneously drive or shop or write.)
**
Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy
Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady
by L. A. Meyer, narrated by Katherine Kellgren
Katherine Kellgren's performance as Jacky Faber, the heroine of this tale of high adventure, is a narration tour de force. Mary Burkey at Audiobooker named Blue Tattoo one of Audiobooker’s Choice: Great Youth Audiobooks of 2008. It also eaerned a 2008 Odyssey Award Honor. Kellgren joins Jim Dale, and Nathaniel Parker in the pantheon of youth audiobook readers.
Meyer's story is a sort of Oliver Twist meets Charlotte Doyle meets Horatio Hornblower.
In order to survive starvation as an orphan on the mean streets of London, Mary Faber becomes "Jacky" and signs on to the crew of HMS Dolphin as a ships' boy. She thrives as part of the Royal Navy. Standing fast under fire and as part of a boarding party, she earns the title Bloody Jack. She must keep her sex a secret but that becomes harder with each passing day.
Curse of the Blue Tattoo could be "the rest of the story" if Charlotte Doyle had not returned to the sea faring life. Jacky Faber meets Sarah Crewe from A Little Princess.
Jacky, newly promoted to midshipman, is booted off the ship when it is discovered that she is a girl. With her share of the Dolphin's prize money, she is enrolled in the Lawson Peabody School. Here the future wives of diplomats, congressmen and even presidents of the new republic are schooled and trained. She strives to understand the social conventions of 18th century Boston and learns school girls can be more dangerous than pirates.
I'm dialing up all of Kellgren's audiobooks, asap.
6 comments:
Congrats, M-I-L!
(Wow, huh?)
I'm kind of addicted to Jacky Farber -- I was only going to read ONE, and then... it got out of hand.
Good fun.
And thank heavens, Listen & Live has booked Kellgren continue the series on audio! If you are an audiobook lover, stop by the Audiobooker blog & leave your predictions for this year's Odyssey Award - I think Curse of the Blue Tattoo is a strong contender!
Mary Burkey
Audiobooker
Now, see...I need to listen. I went on a Jacky binge a couple years ago, and just couldn't squeeze in the last 2. I will listen to them (and do laundry, and herd children...)
Happy New Year, Camille! I'm going to check out the Jack books, which I've seen on shelves, but haven't yet picked up.
Hello,
I also interested the Jack books. Reading just one of his book is not enough..
Cheers,
locksmith mesa
Congratulations and happy new year, Camille!
And thanks for the Jacky Faber info, these are new to us. My 11yod just got an iPod, and when I asked her about the audiobook, she asked me to get it *and* the book from the library! I'll be interested to see just how long it will take her younger brothers to ask for the CDs in their CD player at bedtime...
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