By Linda Bailey
4Rbooks 4/6 grades 6-8
Amazon 4.5/5 grades level 3-7
Goodreads 4.01
Common Sense Media Not yet reviewed
Synopsis
Lewis’s great-grandfather has just passed away. His last words to Lewis were Libertalia. He doesn’t know what that means until he and his mom and dad move into the old family home, Shornoway, a seaside mansion. Lewis climbs to the upper room of the tower and sees the door labeled Libertalia. He chooses this to be his new bedroom.
Lewis soon finds out that he doesn’t have the room to himself. It is where the ghosts of 7 dead pirates hangout. The make themselves visible to Lewis and ask for his help, the help his great-grandfather could give but maybe he can. They want him to come up with a plan for them to leave the house and find there way to the museum which exhibits their ship. They tried once but feared the modern outside world.
Lewis is not sure he is up to the task. At school, Lewis is “terminally shy” and rarely talks, especially in class. He is bullied by Seth and his group of friends, but finds a new friend in Abby, the newest girl to their class. He doesn’t think of himself as a leader and prefers to stay quiet and in the shadows. How could he lead 7 pirate ghosts across town and help them take back their ship? The task is made even more difficult when he learns his mother wants to sell the mansion to developers planning a resort.
Parental Guidelines
It’s a ghost story.
The pirates are foul looking.
There is a ghostly pirate fight with swords, cannons, and property destruction.
Lewis is regularly bullied by a classmate.
There is an unnecessary description of the housekeeper's breasts and how they fit and move in her dress.
Recommendation
This is the classic example of a book with a “Julie of the Wolves” moment. I coined that phrase after reading that classic novel when it was added to our 6th grade reading list as a core novel. It’s a great story, but awkward to read in class when you get to the part where 13-year-old Julie is sexually assaulted by her arranged marriage teenaged husband. I have read several children’s novels over the years that are great stories, but the author includes one event, or one description, or one word that makes it difficult to use in a classroom.
In this novel, it is a description of the older housekeeper in which emphasis is placed on how her breasts fit and move in her dress. In my opinion, an unnecessary detail that adds nothing to the story, but would cause embarrassed laughter in the class when read aloud and make many young girls self-conscious about their breasts and how they fit and move in their clothes.
It’s too bad because overall this is a fun read. The story is unique, the characters are interesting, and the connections between family, history, and community add great detail. A mature reader could handle this book as a personal selection, and a public middle school library would appreciate adding this to their collection. Religious schools and families will have to make their own choices concerning the subject matter (ghosts) and the one inappropriate description.
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