Black Duck | 
| Author: Janet Taylor Lisle
Publisher: Puffin
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy New: $3.45
You Save: $3.54 (51%)
New (31) Used (9) from $3.23
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 30305
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 0142409022
EAN: 9780142409022
ASIN: 0142409022
Publication Date: September 6, 2007
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Product Description
It is spring 1929, and Prohibition is in full swing. So when Ruben and Jeddy find a dead body washed up on the shore of their small coastal Rhode Island town, they are sure it has something to do with smuggling liquor. Soon the boys, along with Jeddys strongwilled sister, Marina, are drawn in, suspected by rival bootlegging gangs of taking something crucial off the dead man. Then Ruben meets the daring captain of the Black Duck, the most elusive smuggling craft of them all, and it isnt long before hes caught in a war between two of the most dangerous prohibition gangs.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
good book July 20, 2008
My 13yr old son was like "what is this" when he found this book I had purchased for him. Hours later he was still absorbed. He said it was a great read and very interesting.
BLACK DUCK July 16, 2008
Historical fiction either works really well, or it doesn't work at all. Those YA historical fiction novels that deftly capture the distinct essence of a time period and place so different from our own that you can hear the unique cadences in speech patterns and visualize details not even mentioned in the text, those novels are to be treasured and savored more than once because they offer not only a well-told tale, by delicious tastes of bygone eras. Recent novels like AL CAPONE DOES MY SHIRTS and OCTAVIAN NOTHING accomplish these goals heroically; you feel as if you are living in the times and that is part of the emotional journey that we love. YA historical fiction that fails is highly awkward, illogical, anachronistic, and MADDENING. We argue with ourselves about why the author couldn't get it right! The guilty (or at least the current crop) shall remain nameless...
Which leads us to Janet Taylor Lisle's latest. BLACK DUCK is (to maintain the metaphor) an odd bird; it captures that time of the late 1920s nicely, but focuses on perhaps the most unusual of young adult subjects: rumrunning. Told primarily in flashback, BLACK DUCK follows Ruben Hart, a fourteen-year-old from Rhode Island who finds himself (as does most of the rest of the town) involved either directly or peripherally with breaking the law (it is Prohibition, after all). This era is brought to life expertly by Lisle's correct decision to have the story told through a first-person point-of-view. That choice allows her to capture the language, mannerisms and trends of the time quite accurately. Building slowly, she offers plenty of historic detail without the weight of seeming to force the historical information on us (like QUAKE!: DISASTER IN SAN FRANCISCO, 1906 does).
I was also taken with Lisle's characterizations, particularly those of the several characters who made unexpected, yet by-all-means organic choices -- always a joy for an English teacher to read -- that took the plot into unexpected, yet organic places.
Though the historical nature of the book is, as far as I can tell, relatively accurate, it is an incredibly bold move on Lisle's part to make practically all of the characters law-breakers (yes, even many of the kids)! On top of that, the reader and a majority of the characters don't want [SPOILER NOTICE] the legal authority -- in this case, the Coast Guard -- to capture the rumrunners aboard the Black Duck. WOW! And it works... beautifully. To take a questionable subject for young adults and approach it in a highly questionable way, and succeed (!!!) deserves real kudos from YA fans.
As an English teacher, this is a great piece for discussion and analysis -- in part for the above-mentioned reasons, but also for the dramatic structure in which the flashbacks are interrupted by the present and newspaper stories of dates in-between.
So, in the categorization of YA historical fiction that soars and those that sink, this rumrunning ship, heavy with cargo, is definitely buoyant.
Black Duch June 18, 2008
Black Duck is a great piece of historical fiction. It tells the story of the rumrunners off the coast of Rhode Island. Because of the mystery running through it, this book will keep you reading for more to find a surprise at the end. There is a couple of "bad" words in the book, however, I recommend it for 6th through 12th graders, boys and girls.
Great Historical Fiction Geared For Kids!! April 25, 2008
I bought "Black Duck" based on the book's description and also based on all the great reviews it has received thus far. I loved the book the entire way through. "Black Duck" is geared for kids ages 9-12 according to the description with the main characters being teenage boys.
I enjoyed how the author intermixes the past with the present in "Black Duck" by making some chapters in the present day and other chapters in the past. Janet Taylor Lisle is able to bring to life what rum-running during the prohibition may have been like on the New England coast in 1929 by using a cast of fictional characters and how prohibition may have effected a community. The story is told through the eyes of Ruben Hart, who was a teenager during 1929.
Currently Ruben Hart is an elderly man. He is approached by a young boy named, David Peterson, whom wants to be a journalist when he grows up. Young David has his sights on writing a story about the the rum-running days and this is where he crosses paths with Ruben Hart. David is set on interviewing Mr. Hart about the rum-running days as he has heard that Mr. Hart knows something about those days. The interview happens over the summer vacation and David learns/hears quite a story from Mr. Hart & quite a tale it is. The two become friends by the end of the novel.
"Black Duck" is a good story with well developed characters!! The story is intriguing and keeps you wanting to know more about what will happen next!!
More Than I Hoped For April 6, 2008
A year ago three of my sixth graders wanted to read Black Duck, a new book in our school library, for Literature Circles. That was my first experience with the book. I started reading on my way home to Illinois and couldn't stop. Likewise, my sixth graders had a lot of praise for the mystery set in the Prohibition Era. If you parents or teachers are looking for a book that will motivate even the most unwilling reader, this is it. One of the boys confided that although he is a jock, he had to confess he couldn't stop reading it. At first some of the girls were resistant, but soon they, too, had to admit they were hooked. Telling the story in an interview is a unique format. This book also lends itself to a variety of research topics the students enjoyed: Prohibition, the Great Depression, the Roaring 20s, Women's Suffrage, politics, gangs, gansters, Rhode Island, the East Coast, and of course bootlegging and smuggling. What a great way to learn some history! I highly recommend it.
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